The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Work on new bus stand makes rapid progress

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 18, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Work on new bus stand makes rapid progress

Special Correspondent

Full-fledged bus bays with well-laid roads and platforms coming up

— Photo: S. S. Kumar

IN FULL SWING: An excavator is deployed for the construction of a bus bay at the new Mofussil bus stand in Vellore on Friday.

VELLORE: New Mofussil Bus Stand next to the Chelliamman Temple on New Katpadi Road today presents a vastly different look than when it was shifted to the present premises from the Old Bus Stand. When the bus stand was shifted to the present 8.79-acre site, which belonged to the erstwhile fruit-processing unit of the North Arcot Cooperative Fruit Processing Society, several passengers resented the move on the grounds that it was not passenger-friendly.

But, what the district administration did was only to implement a decision taken by the State Government about seven years ago. Owing to litigation, there was a delay in executing the project.

But in June 2005, the Government gave the go-ahead for shifting to the fruit unit site and the district administration shifted the bus stand there and simultaneously commenced the work on constructing a full-fledged bus stand.

Heavy rains in October and November last year gave the passengers a lot of inconvenience, as the road and ground became slushy. All that now appears to be a thing of the past, thanks to the efforts taken by the district administration. The work of laying the bus bays and roads and other structures including toilets have been entrusted to the "Kattida Mayyam" (District centre for construction) coming under the District Rural Development Agency. What was a slushy stretch three months ago has now been converted into full-fledged bays with well-laid roads for the buses and platforms for the waiting passengers. Work is in progress to construct other bays and platforms.

A couple of passenger shelters have also been constructed. District administration sanctioned Rs.50 lakh for the roads, Rs.15 lakh for drainage and Rs.10 lakh for toilets. Four more structures — two free toilets and two pay-and-use toilets — are to be constructed, according to V. Balakrishnan, project engineer, Kattida Mayyam. The road from the old fruit-processing unit building would be taken up soon, he noted.

The district administration entrusted the maintenance of toilets and the solid waste management in the bus stand to three women's self-help groups, under the technical guidance of Exnora Green Cross, Vellore.

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