CHENNAI:As part of the efforts to decongest Thiyagarayar Nagar depot, Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) transferred select bus services to Adambakkam depot recently. It has also trimmed its fleet by around 15 white board buses and compensated the services by extending the existing routes.
The bus routes J 51 (T Nagar-Venkatamangalam), 51 M (T Nagar - Madipakkam bus stand), F 51 (T Nagar-Sunnambukulathur), N 51 (T Nagar-Moovarasanpet) and J 51 (T Nagar - Venkatamangalam) were transferred to Adambakkam bus depot last month.
Similarly, S 599 (T Nagar- Mamallapuram) bus has been transferred to Adyar and convered as S 588 (Adyar -Mamalla puram).The MTC had also reduced the select services operated between T Nagar and Broadway (11) and T Nagar and Kanathur (19H).“To compensate the withdrawn bus services, route number 13 which was operated from T Nagar to Triplicane has been extended till Broadway, while 19H route operated upto Kanathur being operated up to Mamallapuram bearing the number 599C,” said an MTC official.
The T Nagar terminus handles 456 buses a day. With 2000 trips , the depot caters to nearly 55,000 passengers a day.The parking capacity of depot and teminus complex is about 60 to 65 buses.However, more number of buses were added to the depot without augumenting the infrastrature.“Nearly 25 buses were parked along South Usman road, Burkit road and Easwaran koil during night hours causing lot of disruption to vehicle movement and also led to accidents. So, we have asked the Metro Transport Corportion not to park the buses on the road,” said a senior traffic police officer.
The MTC’s efforts to expand the depot terminus by occupying the neighbhouring areas did not yield any result as the place was taken for police quarters.The entrance to bus terminus is too narrow and South Usman road and terminus junction witnesses huge traffic congestion during the office hours.“The buses which are shifted to other depots are continoulsy operated without reducing any services from T Nagar. However, to reduce congestion, the Metro Transport Corporation is likely to shift more buses to other depots,” added official sources.