CHENNAI: It has been more than five years since the Vallalar Nagar (Mint) Bus Terminus was shifted from the Mint Bridge junction to a temporary terminus down the Basin Bridge Road. But it continues to lack basic amenities like toilets and drinking water facilities, even for drivers and conductors. More importantly, the absence of sheds for buses has pushed commuters, bus drivers and conductors to travel in buses parked under the scorching heat.
“When you get into a bus that has been parked for 15 minutes under the sun, your body burns. Only once the bus gets moving does it get better,” says a bus driver of 37 G route, who did not wish to be named. He makes 10 trips between Vallalar Nagar and Iyappanthangal daily. Mint is an integral bus terminus for busy routes such as 37 D (KK Nagar), 37 G (Iyappanthangal), 592 (Periyapalayam), 59 (Thiruverkadu) and 56 (Ennore). It also is a junction to board buses to Koyambedu, Broadway, Ambattur, Perambur and Redhills. More than 30,000 passengers use the terminus every day.
“We only board the bus after the driver gets in,” says Janani R, a student of Bharathi Women’s College, who goes to Periyapalayam. In Janani’s experience, the shelter also becomes overcrowded, forcing many to wait in the sun.
The Mint Bus Terminus is not the lone one facing this issue. Even the busy High Court Bus Terminus has had no shelter for buses for over a decade and lacks basic amenities, too.
Facing the heat
The Mint Bus Terminus is often visited by stray animals, even during rush hour. When Express visited the bus stand, cows were seen ambling inside the terminus. “There’s no gate or wall. So they enter through the North Wall Road and go out from Basin Bridge Road,” said a staff member at the terminus’ office. Lack of toilets and drinking water facilities for staff members has been a major concern for the drivers and conductors there. The wash basin does not have taps and the pipe is broken. To bear the heat, the staff members at the makeshift office in the bus stand have set up polystyrene sheets.
‘‘The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) built a proper shelter and seating facility for commuters recently, but it has left the drivers, conductors and office staff in the lurch,’’ says a bus conductor of the Thiruverkadu route, adding that since it is a temporary bus terminus, no measures were taken for five years and it continues to be like that.
Temporary for how long?
The bus terminus was shifted due to the Old Washermenpet Metro Rail construction near the old Mint Bus Terminus. “We are waiting for the land to be handed over to MTC,” says an MTC official. However, it has been four months since the Metro Rail station was inaugurated, and the old bus stand has been left in neglect. Debris including plastic waste has piled up in the area and people have started using it as a public toilet. When contacted, CMRL officials told Express that handing over the land back to MTC is “under due process”.