The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Rs.18-lakh bus terminal comes in handy, but not for buses

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 10, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Rs.18-lakh bus terminal comes in handy, but not for buses

K. Manikandan

Medavakkam facility reduced to a parking lot for private vehicles

NOT SERVING THE PURPOSE: The Medavakkam bus terminus used to park lorries and private buses. — Photo : K. Manikandan

TAMBARAM : Cleaners bale out buckets of water from a lake to wash their buses. Other crew off-load sand and `churn' it for transporting in another vehicle. The job done, everyone relaxes under the shade of a tree.

Scenes such as this — of lorry crews engaged in the lucrative sand business — are quite common at ponds and lakes. But in Medavakkam near Tambaram, it takes place at the bus terminus.

Constructed at a cost of Rs. 18 lakh, the bus terminus on Velachery Main Road opposite Quaid-e-Milleth College has been reduced to a parking lot for private vehicles. Medavakkam is an important junction at the intersection of Velachery Main Road, Mambakkam Main Road and the road leading to Sholinganallur. It is also an important commercial centre for villages nearby.

Keeping the expanding transportation needs of the area in mind, Medavakkam village Panchayat and Kancheepuram district administration constructed the full-fledged bus terminus with concrete flooring provided under the Anna Marumalarchi Thittam.

The terminus was formally inaugurated in January 2001 in the presence of Union and State Ministers. However, the only vehicles that use it now are private buses hired by companies to charter their employees and sand lorries.

According to officials of the district administration, the terminus was planned to ease congestion in the market area of Medavakkam junction, where traffic problems were worsening by the day. Buses originating from Medavakkam are supposed to utilise it, but instead the vehicles are parked in the market area.

Though the district administration was ready to spend money to build a roof for the terminus, the plan was shelved as the buses were not using it. The lack of patronage is baffling considering that the facility could greatly ease the traffic congestion at this important intersection, according to residents.

Senior MTC officials, when contacted, said they would study the situation and take appropriate steps.

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