After serving the Madurai Corporation for 40 years, the vintage engine of the civic body’s most famous Fargo truck has fallen silent for good. No longer will it ferry mid-day meals for students of different schools, neither will it evoke terror among encroachers and towel spreaders during eviction drives.
The filmdom, too, will have to make do without their favourite yellow-monster. The four-decade-old TNA 3952 truck, which was introduced way back in 1978 for distributing mid-day meals to government schools across the city and was also part of several Tamil movies, has been decommissioned from service by the civic body recently.
The truck, built by US-based Chrysler Corporation, was powered by six-cylinder inline engine. It was the oldest among the existing vehicles in the Corporation fleet, said an official at the Sellur vehicle shed. It was used for supplying food to schools in the 1980s when the Sellur vehicle shed was a cooking centre for mid-day meals, the official recalled.
From the 1990s, the truck switched roles and was used by the Town Planning department for encroachment eviction after government schools began cooking meals on their premises.
The retro look helped the truck grab attention of filmmakers. It had starred in the 2008 Tamil hit, Subramaniapuram and also features in Bharathiraja’s upcoming Tamil film Annakodiyum Kodiyeeranaum, said S Rajeshwaran, an employee at the vehicle shed.
M Neethirajan, Secretary of K Pudur Market Anaithu Viyabarigal Sangam said that the vehicle was a nightmare for street-side vendors who encroached upon pedestrian paths outside the K Pudur market as civic officials would load the recovered materials in the vehicle. Alert vendors would notice the vehicle from a distance due to its bright yellow colour and would escape from the spot, he added. City Engineer A Mathuram said that the vehicle went for fitness checks once a year at the RTO. It was also maintained well to meet emission standards. Since the vehicle was too old and difficult to maintain as per standards and the cost involved in its upkeep, the civic body removed it from service, he said.