CHENNAI: Nanganallur resident Praneeth Sridharan’s shift starts at 3 pm. He leaves his home an hour early every day to travel to his office in Velachery, a distance of five kilometres that can be covered in 15-20 minutes. Praneeth’s challenge is not to beat the traffic, but to wait for the small bus from Nanganallur. He is one of the many commuters in the city who suffers because of the infrequent plying of small buses. Commuters allege these buses operate only once in two, three or even four hours.
“Initially, buses plied every 30 minutes. Now there is no particular time at which the buses arrive, and we hardly see any buses in the afternoon. So, we are forced to change buses to reach our destination, which increases travel time and money spent,” said Praneeth.
Low frequency of small buses is a complaint raised by residents of almost all areas including interior pockets of Avadi and Ambattur, Saidapet, Adambakkam, Velachery and areas beyond Tambaram.
The 27-seater minibus was launched in 2013 as an alternative to share autos and vans. However, commuters once again seem to prefer using share autos.
“Initially, share autos from suburbs to bus stops charged `10 and small buses, `9. However, with increased demand for share autos due to the low frequency of small buses, auto drivers have spiked their fares to `15 and this has added to our woes,” said S Pavithran, a resident of Avadi.
According to an official of the Metropolitan Transportation Corporation (MTC), 189 buses are being operated along 82 routes and though they mentioned that there has not been any difference in the number of buses operated in the last one year and that there is not much difference in the patronage, official sources say the patronage plummeted by nearly 10 per cent. Daily footfall recorded per bus fell from 625 in 2017 to 565 in 2019.
“If the buses are being operated along all the 82 routes, why don’t we see any buses between Avadi and Poonamalle or Thiruninravur and Avadi? Officials must take measures to ensure at least one bus every half an hour,” rued P Usha, a commuter.
Explaining the reason small buses are not operated properly, an MTC staff member on condition of anonymity said, “Small buses are not financially viable. While `40 is spent per km, we earn only about `30 per km. Also, there is a high rate of absenteeism among drivers and conductors. That is why, despite 15 spare buses, the frequency is still low.”