MLAs chip in to improve the bus stops in Tambaram Corporation

Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) buses in Chennai lack proper shelters, prompting plans for modernization and public-private partnerships.

It is unique that the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) operates buses in Chennai and its suburbs, but the bus shelters are maintained by the Greater Chennai Corporation. The Chennai Corporation owns the bus stops in the city limits, and those in the neighbouring districts are managed by the respective local bodies. This results in poor maintenance of the bus stops, for the priorities of the local bodies remain roads, piped drinking water, garbage clearance, and improvements to the other amenities.

Several bus stops in the city and on the outskirts are without shelters. As a result, hundreds of commuters wait in the open, in the summer or during rain. As for the more than 30 bus termini in and around the city, the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) has come forward to redevelop the termini in the city because of the poor finances of the State Transport Corporations, including the MTC.

However, the bus stops are getting a face-lift in the Tambaram Corporation. They are located at Pallavaram, Chromepet, Sanatorium, Chitlapakkam, Pammal, Anakaputhur, and West and East Tambaram. Formed three years ago, the Tambaram Corporation has initiated plans for developing bus stops at 84 places, with three bus stops on GST Road planned for modernisation with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds by this year-end.

A senior official says that initially, there was a plan to allot the bus stops to private players who would install concrete shelters and create public conveniences. However, the project failed to take off as private players were uninterested. Then, a textile showroom developed the bus stop at the Tambaram railway station into an air-conditioned bus stop, at the recommendation of the Tambaram Police Commissionerate, at a cost of ₹20 lakh. The make-over received good response from the commuters.

Based on this model, three bus stops would be developed with CSR funds at Perungalathur and Irumbuliyur, which have become the transport hub for passengers travelling in long-distance buses and those returning to the city to board the MTC buses. The three bus stops would have concrete shelters, public conveniences, and other amenities. The private firms taking over the bus stops at prominent places along GST Road and Velachery Main Road could earn by letting out the space for advertisements, the official says.

While the Tambaram Corporation is looking for companies to maintain the bus stops, Tambaram MLA S.R. Raja allotted ₹15 lakh under the MLA Constituency Development Scheme. With this sum, a concrete bus shelter has been built at Sanatorium on GST Road. The dilapidated bus stop was demolished and a new one has been constructed, Mr. Raja says, because a large number of patients visit the Government Hospital for Thoracic Medicine and the Tambaram Corporation headquarters will be established near the hospital. There are plans to renovate more bus stops on GST Road and Mudichur Road or to build new ones, he adds.

On his part, Pallavaram MLA E. Karunanidhi allotted funds for a new concrete bus shelter at Chromepet, on the GST Road, where huge crowds throng textile and gold showrooms. Mr. Karunanidhi says there are plans for constructing concrete bus stops on the Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam Radial Road, for the road has become busy and a large number of MTC buses are being operated on this road.