Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday flagged off 826 buses on 304 routes across the State, through videoconferencing from the Secretariat, and handed over the keys for seven buses to the drivers.
While the first bus was operated from the CM’s constituency Srirangam to Trivandrum, buses on seven routes, including T Nagar-Koyambedu Bus Terminus (J27), Udumalai-Coimbatore, Namakkal-Coimbatore, Srivilliputhur- Thiruthangal, were operated in her presence.
With the addition of these 826 buses - 560 new buses and 266 refurbished ones - the present fleet strength of State-run buses now stands at 19,507, catering to 2.1 crore passengers per day.
Jayalalithaa also launched wallet-friendly free bus passes for the benefit of 30.36 lakh school students.
She also gave away employment orders to the kin of 400 transport department employees who died while in service, on compassionate grounds, besides issuing orders for regularisation of 338 employees, already employed on compassionate grounds.
Orders for regularisation for 4,511 temporary drivers, 4,558 temporary conductors, and 88 temporary technical staff in the department were also issued by the CM.
As many as 2,316 retired employees were given benefits amounting to `47.71 crore. The CM also inaugurated a master health check-up benefiting 22,803 drivers who had crossed 45 years of age. Transport Minister Senthil Balaji and officials, including secretary Braj Kishore Prasad, were present.