Can south-bound private buses be allowed to operate from Koyambedu too, asks Madras High Court

Madras High Court considers allowing private buses to operate from Koyambedu in addition to Kilambakkam terminus.

The Madras High Court, on Wednesday, January 31, 2024 wanted the State Transport Commissioner to spell out by Thursday, as to whether the south-bound private buses can be permitted to operate from the Central Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT) at Koyambedu too, apart from the newly-constructed terminus at Kilambakkam, on the outskirts of Chennai, for a few more weeks. 

Justice R.N. Manjula accepted a request made by Advocate General P.S. Raman to grant him a day’s time to get instructions from the Transport Commissioner. The judge was of the view that the Transport Commissioner’s January 24 order directing private buses to be operated only from Kilambakkam could be suspended for a few weeks to ensure a smooth transition.

She agreed with Senior Counsel Vijay Narayan that bus operators wanting to board and deboard passengers from the CMBT at Koyambedu should be allowed to do so until the disposal of writ petitions filed by two of his clients, YBM Travels and Vetri Travels, who had challenged the restriction imposed by the Transport Commissioner against entry of private buses into city limits beyond Kilambakkam.

Mr. Narayan brought it to the notice of the judge that the Transport Commissioner had issued the order on January 24 and ordered its implementation within two days. As per the order, private buses, plying between Chennai and the southern districts of Tamil Nadu, must commence and terminate their services only at Kilambakkam bus terminus.

Stating that the new restriction was against the two-decade old practice of boarding and de-boarding passengers bound to all districts of Tamil Nadu from the CMBT, the Senior Counsel said, the Koyambedu terminus was constructed in 2002 when a similar restriction on entry into city limits was imposed by the then Transport Commissioner and the Commissioner of Police. 

However, on December 30, 2003, the first Division Bench of the Madras High Court led by its then Chief Justice ruled against the prohibition. Though the State took the matter on appeal to the Supreme Court, the latter dismissed the appeal on August 30, 2012. Therefore, a similar restriction could not be imposed once again now after the construction of the Kilambakkam bus terminus, Mr. Narayan contended.

Further, highlighting several inconveniences that the bus operators as well as the passengers were being put to at the Kilambakkam bus terminus, the writ petitioners insisted on permitting the private bus operators to continue to operate from Koyambedu as well as they had been doing for the last two decades.