Following the lockdown lull, MTC ridership in Chennai sees a revival

The free bus travel for women scheme announced last May is one of the biggest contributors for the resurgence

The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) is slowly seeing a revival in the city as the number of passengers carried per day has touched pre-pandemic numbers.

Since the State government hiked the ticket fare in January 2018, combined with the series of lockdowns due to COVID-19, the MTC took a hit to its passenger count. However, the announcement of free bus travel for women in ordinary buses by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin in May 2021 has helped the corporation regain their passengers, sources said.

A senior official of the Transport Department, sharing details of passenger data for the financial years from 2019-20 to 2021-22 (April to March), said the average passengers carried per day had almost touched 29 lakh against the 33.5 lakh prevailing before the lockdown was announced at the end of March 2020.

The official said the occupancy rate of the MTC reached the nadir in 2020-21, when a series of lockdowns between April and August 2020, announced as part of COVID-19 prevention, resulted in the halving of the passengers carried per day to 15 lakh against the average of 30 lakh carried per day pre-lockdown.

Even after the lockdowns were lifted from January 2021, the MTC failed to recoup passengers as a majority had migrated to using personal transportation. The occupancy rate at one point touched the lowest of 6.76 lakh in May 2021.

However, after Chief Minister M.K. Stalin assumed office and announced free bus travel for women, the MTC has witnessed a growth in the occupancy ratio with nearly 30% of the passengers being accounted for ‘zero value tickets’.

The official said the zero value tickets, which included students and women, had seen a steady increase in the average number of passengers per day from 5 lakh in July last year to nearly 8 lakh in March.