CHENNAI: From February 1, commuters boarding or alighting from buses from the Kathipara Junction will no longer have to sweat it out. Three new AC bus shelters will offer seating comfort and toilet facilities, as they await a bus. Besides, an ATM facility for those in need of a little pocket change and a cappuccino outlet providing timely refreshments are certain to drive the imaginations of city dwellers wild.
After all, Chennai is only second to Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu to have AC bus shelters.
The shelters have been constructed by the St Thomas Mount-Pallavaram Cantonment Board on a budget of `1.25 crore under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative.
Speaking to City Express, the Board’s Chief Executive Officer S Prabakaran said that an equal number of shelters would come up on the other side of the stretch. However, work on that will have to wait until Metro Rail completes its work on Alandur station, he said.
“We have identified three other bus stops that will make way for similar AC shelters. We are assessing possibilities and preparing estimates,” he said.
Each shelter has been built on an area of 360 square feet and is likely to be fitted with CCTV cameras. “There will be TV sets to display details regarding bus arrivals and timings. Electrical work will be completed soon,” he added.
Prabakaran said that an earlier design idea to build an urinal facility alone was dropped in favour of constructing an urinal-cum-toilet facility.
But while residents of Alandur, St Thomas Mount and adjoining areas will be the ‘immediate’ beneficiaries of the project, the core city dwellers will have to wait as the Chennai Corporation has no immediate plans to construct AC shelters.
Corporation officials said that with litigation on taking control of the bus shelters in the city by the civic body from the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) nearing completion, the Corporation was preparing estimates on constructing new shelters in several places in the city.
“We will continue crackdown on unauthorised bus shelters. The Chennai Corporation will construct stainless steel shelters in several locations in the city,” said an official.
But regular bus commuters raised a valid criticism of the stainless steel shelters of the civic body. “The new shelters do not carry information on buses that stop there. The old bus stops had this information painted on the sides. The Corporation should rectify this issue,” said B Nagarajan, a commuter.