Passengers hit by fewer services as leaky MTC buses go to the workshop

It wasn’t just OLA or Uber, even Metropolitan Transport Corporation bus services were disrupted during the first spell of monsoon rains.
File: MTC buses | EPS
File: MTC buses | EPS

CHENNAI: It wasn’t just OLA or Uber, even Metropolitan Transport Corporation bus services were disrupted during the first spell of monsoon rains. While Chennai limped back to normalcy on Wednesday, commuters in the city had to face a lot of hardships as about 350 MTC bus services were cancelled in highly congested routes during the rains. Blame it on poor maintenance of vehicles and absence of MTC workers for the past four days.

Of the 350 buses, 230 were removed from the fleet due to roof leakage and damaged seats. Those buses were taken to their respective depots for repair work. Also, more than 100 conductors and drivers are yet to report for duty as their houses were damaged in the heavy rains, according to official sources.
With a fleet capacity of 3,500 buses, the MTC caters to the 48 lakh population in the city and parts of Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts. The buses are operated along 833 routes from 33 depots.

During the last four days, there were fewer buses during rush hour at Tambaram, Chromepet, Poonamallee, Porur, Mangadu, Vandalur, Ayanavaram, Perambur, Kovilampakkam and Avadi areas, which subjected thousands of office-goers to hardship and forced many of them to opt for autos and cabs.
“I regularly board 21G at Tambaram between 8 am and 9 to go to Alwarpet. As two bus services before 8.30 am were cancelled, the buses during morning hours were fully loaded. As there was no direct bus, we had to take two buses,” said K Venkatesan, a regular commuter from Tambaram.

The situation was no different for regular commuters who travel in T Nagar-Poonamalle (49A), Parrys-Tambaram (21G), Mandaveli-Poonamallee (54 F), Aynavaram-Besant Nagar (23C), Ambattur-Velachery (D70), Saidapet-Karani (51B), Perambur-Besant Nagar/Tiruvanmiyur (29C), Avadi-Anna square (27H) and MKB Nagar-Anna Square (2A) routes, as these bus services were also reduced.

Commuters demanded that the MTC develop a system to alert the passengers about cancellation of buses.
“At a time when every government department uses social media to share information, what stops the MTC from sharing these details, asked K Rajendran of Mandaveli. He alleged that four services of 54F services have been cancelled in the morning hours since Monday.

However, MTC officials said that of 3,500 buses, they had managed to operate about 2,800 buses a day even during rainy season. “Most of the workers of MTC have returned to duty and about 95 per cent of scheduled services are operated,” claimed a senior official of the MTC.

The reasons for bus service disruption are plenty, said MTC unions. “According to Indian Road Congress, the average age of a bus is seven years or 6 lakh km, whichever is earlier. More than 80 per cent of the MTC fleet have exceeded the lifespan. Majority of MTC buses are not getting maintained properly due to lack of spare parts and shortage of technical staff. These buses will experience break down frequently during rainy days,” said K Natarajan, treasurer of Labour Progressive Federation.
Natarajan added that until new buses are added to the fleet, bus services in Chennai will not improve.

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