CHENNAI: In total contrast with transport officials claims, official records of the state government have revealed that the daily commuter patronage for the State Transport Corporations has fallen by over 20 lakh since January 2018. This is a 10 per cent fall. The Transport department’s policy note has also disclosed that the total fleet strength of eight transport corporations was reduced by 1,238 since January. The official statement, issued by the government on January 19, 2018, while announcing the bus fare hikes, claimed that eight transport corporations catered for about 2.02 crore commuters daily.
However, the total number of passengers who travelled in government buses daily has came down to 1.80 crore, according to the department’s policy note released on Monday. This means that the daily patronage for government buses has fallen by over 20 lakh passengers, admitted the government statement. The fall of commuter patronage for government buses is primarily attributed to the increase in bus ticket fares. On January 19, bus fares were hiked by 30 to 80 per cent for TNSTC, SETC and MTC buses.
Followed by stiff opposition, on January 28 the government marginally slashed the fares, but a large section of commuters did not return to buses, which resulted in reduction in ticket collection.The official policy note tabled before the Assembly on Monday stated that about 19,490 buses operated daily, on an average, (excluding spare buses), as against the fleet strength of 20,776 mentioned before the Madras High Court in January 2018.
In addition, the recent officials record has also stated that government buses run for about 87.22 lakh km across the state, as against 88.64 lakh km long operated till January 2018. The distance of operation of bus was cut by 1.42 lakh km and hence several towns and villages have lost bus services across Tamil Nadu.