The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : State to revamp transport sector

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 05, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

State to revamp transport sector

Sandhya Soman

SETC will buy 100 new buses to replace the ageing vehicles: Nehru

CHENNAI: The transport sector is set for a revamp in the next three months, with more fund allocation and new policy decisions to improve the operations of state transport corporations.

Transport Minister K.N. Nehru told The Hindu on Tuesday that to begin with the State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) would get 100 new buses to replace the ageing vehicles in its fleet of about 1,000 buses.

"The vehicles having interstate and intrastate operations are in three categories — ultra deluxe, semi-deluxe and deluxe. We will introduce more comfortable buses with carpets , extra legroom and increased space to keep luggage," said Mr. Nehru.

The Government was considering hiring luxury buses as was done in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. "This will be done after consulting experts, employees and other stakeholders," he said.

As many as 1,000 buses would be lined up for replacement in all state transport corporations. The accent would be on providing safe and comfortable vehicles with sliding doors and sloping facility to help disabled commuters.

The Minister said buses bought using Rs. 100 crore allocation would replace old ones, particularly in the Madurai and Coimbatore divisions as well as in the Metropolitan Transport Corporation and the SETC.

Kanyakumari, Coimbatore and Chennai were the worst-hit owing to fuel price hike.

Coimbatore division suffered due to lack of patronage for minibuses in areas such as Udhagamandalam.

Villupuram, Kumbakonam and Salem divisions had enough revenue from collections to buy 1,000 buses with the assistance of the Transport Finance Corporation.

The Ministry would take steps to meet crew shortage, an issue plaguing the MTC.

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