CHENNAI: The Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) introduced feeder services from the airport to Tambaram West in the first week of August. However, residents demand that it must be rerouted as the bus, S100, runs parallel to GST, where at least 20 MTC buses are plying, but skips the residential areas of Hasthinapuram, Chitlapakkam and Tambaram East.
“The service starts from the airport metro station and runs along GST Road up to Chrompet MIT flyover. However, the need for feeder service only arises after this. The route covers only a distance of 1.5 km of Chitlapakkam First Main Road and Second Main Road, which has MIT Hostel, Mount Union office and Chitlapakkam lake for 1km distance. Only 0.5km is a residential area. This defeats the purpose of the feeder service,” said Dayanand Krishnan, an activist.
While Chitlapakkam has a population of about 60,000, Hasthinapuram and Tambaram East, each has more than a lakh people. “The feeder bus travels through Baratha Mada Street in Tambaram East and goes up to Tambaram East MCC College and proceeds towards Tambaram West. This is unnecessary as there are many shorter route buses already available from the airport to Tambaram,” said Karthik Ranganathan, a resident of Hasthinapuram.
The residents said the bus can go from Pallavaram to the RP Road Junction and proceed towards Varadharaja theatre, Anna Street, Gandhi Street, Muthulakshmi Nagar, Pamban Swamy Salai, Babu Street, Maruthapandiyar Street bus stop, Thirumurugan Salai, Chitlapakkam Third and Second Main Road, Tambaram Sanatorium railway station, Bharatha Mada Street and go towards Tambaram East.
“Implementing such minor changes without an increase in distance will benefit college students and the working population. This will ensure better utilisation of the feeder services too. We have been requesting small bus services for at least three years,” said K Sneha, a resident of Pallavaram.
When contacted, an official from the transport department said, “The patronage of buses plying in the interior areas of Hasthinapuram and Chitlapakkam is very low. We will conduct a survey and change the route if needed.”