CHENNAI: The connectivity to key locations such as hospitals, metro, railway stations, and important junctions is expected to improve in the coming days as private operators launched services on 10 routes on Monday and Tuesday.
The new routes include Adambakkam railway station-Echangadu junction (6 km), Echangadu-Madipakkam bus stop (6 km), Kaiveli Bridge-Madipakkam Koot Road (7 km), Karapakkam (OMR)-Thuraipakkam 200ft road (9.3 km), Kovilambakkam-Meenakshi Hospital (5.3 km), Ambattur Dunlop-Pammadhukulam bus stop (14.3km), Nolambur bus stand-Paruthipattu check post (14.2 km), Porur Chettiyar Agaram-Alwarthirunagar Aavin Point (7.8km), Ramapuram DLF-Porur Toll gate (6.3 km) and Lamech School-Meenakshi General Hospital (7 km).
Until now, urban transportation in the city was entirely handled by government agencies such as Southern Railway, MTC, and CMRL.
Transport Commissioner Shunchonngam Jatak Chiru told TNIE that 2,094 mini bus routes have been notified, and proceedings have been issued for operating buses on 2,010 of these routes.
“Additionally, 1,009 routes have been approved for migration from the old mini bus scheme, with 847 routes granted permission to operate. In total, mini buses are currently running on 2,857 routes under the new scheme across the state as on June 15,” the official said.
“Currently, more than 30 mini buses are in the final stages of construction and are expected to be launched in the next couple of weeks,” the official added.
He added that route planning in the city posed several challenges due to the lack of uninterrupted stretches with poor connectivity that meet the 65 % (17 km) unserved route criteria under the scheme. “Once commuters patronage grows, operators may increase the number of services,” the official said.
As per the scheme guidelines, the total permissible route length for mini buses is 25 km, with 17 km in unserved areas (65%) and 8km in already served routes (35%). An additional km is allowed if the route ends near a public facility such as government hospital, school, or railway station.
“The new mini bus service provides connectivity to mofussil buses at the Porur Toll Plaza and will to ease congestion on the interior roads. The ticket fare is also affordable,” said S Chellappa Rajan, a resident of Porur.
Operators also say that the revised scheme addresses many shortcomings of the previous one. “Some of the older operators have already applied to transition to the new scheme. After the migration, we expect the total number of mini buses operating in the state to reach 6,000-7,000. However, a few continue to operate on their original routes,” said K Kodiarasan, president of the Tamil Nadu Mini Bus Owners Federation.