Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi   

Not all come under these stylish shelters City pulse

R. Karthikeyan, a private firm staff: Authorities should consult residents on bus stops and shelters.

P. Logeswaran (graphic designer): More shelters should be put up in areas of floating population

S. Santhosh Kumar (CA student): Officials should think properly before erecting shelters.

— Photos: M. Moorthy

Passenger-friendly: A bus shelter established in front of Tiruchi Railway Junction.

TIRUCHI: The Corporation, as part of its effort to beautify the city, has established well-designed and conveniently located modern bus shelters in various parts of the city.

These state-of-the-art bus shelters, constructed with the assistance of business houses, private hospitals and voluntary agencies, have been provided with adequate seating facility and lighting arrangements besides with bus information display boards. Some of these shelters even have the facility for charging the mobile phone and audio entertainment facility.

Unfortunately, some of these shelters remain under utilised and wears a deserted look round-the-clock. Bus shelters established even on the busy thoroughfares like the Junction area (opposite the Khadi Craft show room); on the Bharathidasan Road (opposite LIC; on the West Boulevard Road (opposite Ibrahim Park); on Thillainagar Main road (near 11th Cross and 7th Cross); near the Puthur Four road junction; near the Collector’s Office; on the Mannarpuram Main road, etc., are not being utilised by the people and could be found deserted all through day.

Such unused and under utilised bus shelters are waste of money and pose a problem in terms of their proper upkeep and maintenance, observe city residents. Both travelling people and the bus crew are blamed for this sorry state of affairs.

A majority of the people, instead of waiting at the bus shelters, prefer to stand a little distance away for boarding the buses. They blame the crew, particularly the private operators, for halting the buses a few metres beyond the stipulated stoppage points thereby preventing them from using the shelters.

On the other hand, the crew claim that they had to stop the buses away from the stops, as none of the passengers wait at the shelters. However, representatives of consumer bodies and voluntary organisations feel that a proper directive by the police and officials of the Transport Department to the crew to park the buses only at the notified places, will set things right. The police could also take steps to discipline those commuters waiting a little away from the notified stop to board the bus, they say.

The modern bus shelters in places like TVS Tollgate, Subramaniapuram, Head Post office junction, Joseph Eye Hospital, K. A. P. Viswanatham Medical College Hospital, etc., are well utilised by the commuters. Full occupancy of the chairs by passengers-on-wait is quite visible at all these places. “It is a good facility and we are protected from both the sun and the rain”, observed M. Senthil Kumar.

Residents also feel the need to establish proper bus shelters in various parts of the temple town of Srirangam which is frequented by devotees from different parts of the country round the year. Bus shelters also needed at Senthaneerpuram, Palakkarai, on the Madurai Road, at TVS Tollgate, near Airport, Palpannai roundabout, Ariyamangalam, Kattur.

At many places people could be seen waiting in the open braving the sun and rain.

The authorities should come forward to construct at least ordinary shelters in these places; if they could not go for modern shelters, says Mrs. Shazadi Babu, a resident of Ariyamangalam.

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