CHENNAI: The schoolchildren wait at a bus stop to board a Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) bus. As soon as the already jam-packed vehicle appears, they jostle with each other to get on the bus when it comes to a halt. As the bus resumes its journey, a group of students are standing on the footboard, hanging on for dear life. This is the sight at most bus stops on any given day.
On October 26, an 18-year-old college student fell off a fully-loaded MTC bus at Kolapakkam and came under its wheels. In a similar incident, on October 6, a 14-year-old school student from Perumbakkam lost his life near Adyar. Most parents are worried to send their children to school by bus. “I cannot imagine my children travelling in an MTC bus during peak hours. To avoid this, I shifted houses twice in three years,” said S Ambika from Korattur.
Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicles (Regulation and Control of School Buses) Special Rules, 2012 mandates that buses shall not carry more persons than the seating capacity and the doors shall remain closed during the operation of buses. The rules prescribed for the safety of students for buses operated by private institutions are hardly followed by the MTC, which carries 4.5 lakh students a day in Chennai and its suburbs. As of November, with a fleet of 3,236 buses, MTC ferries 26 lakh commuters a day, according to official data.
Apart from inadequate buses, footboard travel is attributed to the increasing strength of students and escalating operational costs of MTC.
A bus driver from West Saidapet depot said, “The issue of footboard travel occurs mostly in ordinary buses which do not have doors. The corporation school at West Saidapet is one of the schools with the highest student strength in the city. Not a day goes by when students are not seeing hanging from both doors of the 18K (West Saidapet -Broadway).”
A few months ago, MTC directed drivers to stop if students were found on the footboard. The order could not be implemented as many routes did not have adequate buses. In a few places, stoppage of buses resulted in arguments between students and drivers.
An RTO official said, “Safety guidelines prescribed in MV Special Rules 2012 are meant for buses that carry children below the age of 12. However, MTC buses should fix the doors at the earliest.”
Out of MTC’s 3,236 buses, 1,446 are ordinary services that do not have doors. A proposal to fit doors on ordinary buses has been delayed due to a fund crunch. Besides, the MTC has not received any new buses in the last few years due to pending litigations in court.
According to the transport survey by research agencies, the city requires at least 3,000 new buses. Anbu Abraham, managing director of MTC, said, “After the college student’s death at Kolapakkam, we increased four trips on the Tambaram-Kilambakkam route during peak hours. A study on students’ demand is under way. Based on the report, we will decide on how to bring down overcrowding in buses during peak hours.”
Abraham further said that the Institute of Road Transport (IRT) has started to procure new buses for MTC and other corporations. “In addition, approval was received for rebuilding new bus bodies for 1,000 old chassis for seven corporations. We will soon add a sizeable number to the existing fleet.”