The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : MTC can do better in suburbs: commuters

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Tamil Nadu - Chennai

MTC can do better in suburbs: commuters

City Bureau

They resent more buses to OMR and less service from Tambaram east to High Court

— Photo: M. KARUNAKARAN.

RISKY RIDE: An overcrowded MTC bus seen near Palavakkam on the East Coast Road, on Friday.

CHENNAI: The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) does not have many fans in the suburbs. Many commuters complain of the low frequency of bus services, others complain that deluxe services have replaced ordinary buses instead of supplementing them, and others think that there is just neglect of many areas.

On Wednesday, a number of commuters at the East Tambaram terminus were complaining of the high frequency of buses to Old Mahabalipuram Road. Their grouch was that since the IT boom in Chennai, more buses have been diverted to that route while routes like A 51 (High Court – Tambaram East) have fewer buses.

However, M. Ramasubramanian, managing director, MTC, says: “We have been adding new routes based on public demand. Since there is a huge demand for buses to the IT corridor , we have increased the number of services to that area. However, we have not done this by short-changing commuters on other routes.”

Similarly, commuters from West Tambaram complain that there are not enough buses starting at Tambaram while many have been converted to routes starting from Guduvanchery or Vandalur. A. Natarajan, a bank employee working in Nandanam, says that this diversion makes it harder for commuters as the buses are full by the time they reach Tambaram.

Recently, Nanganallur residents appealed to the State government to introduce more direct bus services to their area. In North Chennai, Vysarpadi, Kodungaiyur, Mahakavi Bharathi Nagar and Kannadasan Nagar are the worst-hit areas according to commuters. Share-autos swallow the revenue that should have been the MTC’s, feels D. Devipriya, a college lecturer from Mullai Nagar.

Residents of Virugambakkam, Alwarthirunagar, and Valasarawakkam also say that they are in need of bus services especially to the Egmore Railway Station. Presently, they have to reach Vadapalani to continue their onward journey.

To address these issues, MTC officials say that the fleet strength has been expanded to 3,000 vehicles and new routes have been added for the passengers’ convenience. But activists say that many of these new routes do not help those who cannot afford to spend too much on each commute.

T. Ravikumar, president, All India Rail and Bus Passengers Welfare Association, says that the MTC has slowly replaced its regular services with ‘M’ services, on which commuters have to shell out a minimum of one rupee extra. “The MTC should replace all ‘M’ services with regular services, as the ‘M’ service is not a fast service. It does not benefit the commuters,” he contends.

R. Selvam, a milk vendor from Agaramthen village, says that converting ordinary services into deluxe or ‘M’ services was an attempt to effect an indirect tariff hike. He asked the MTC to instead increase services to areas such as Ponmar, Agaramthen, Vengaivasal which had a number of residential apartments, schools and colleges and hence quite a few potential passengers.

MTC sources say that a number of possible options are being tried. MTC had introduced bus routes such as M151 (Tambaram East-Kovalam), 551A Express (Tambaram East-Kelambakkam), T151 Express (Tambaram East-Kovalam), M127B (Anna Square-Thiruverkadu), which were proving profitable, they say.

In this respect, K. Narayanan, research scholar on urban transport and former managing director of State Transport Corporation says that the number of commuters within the city has increased much faster than the fleet expansions carried out by the MTC. In this scenario, it would be extremely difficult for the MTC to satisfy commuters from all areas.

As a first step, Mr. Narayanan says that MTC should be concentrating its existing resources on providing maximum service to commuters from within the city instead of expanding out to mofussil areas. Services to places such as Chengalpattu and Mahabalipuram could be provided by other organisations. The MTC would do well to leave those routes and restructure its fleet to serve commuters who were complaining of inadequate services, he adds.

(With inputs from Shyam Ranganathan, T. Madhavan and Deepa H Ramakrishnan)

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