CHENNAI: In what could give a major thrust to the state transport corporations that have been facing the wrath of commuters over the shabby look of government buses, the transport department has decided to build 2,995 new buses in the next two years. To this effect, the Institute of Road Transport (IRT), an engineering and technology support wing of the state transport department, has commenced the works to procure the chassis for building the new buses at an estimated cost of Rs 492 crore. The IRT has floated bids to build 2,995 chassis for eight transport corporations.
This comes even as the tender procedures to build 946 new buses for the year 2019 are yet to be completed. Of the 2,480 bus chassis, 1,765 chassis have been allotted to Villupuram, Salem, Coimbatore, Kumbakonam, Madurai and Tirunelveli divisions of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) for mofussil buses. 200 chassis for small buses have been allotted to MTC and six other divisions of TNSTC.
In addition, Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) and State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) are to get 520 and 515 bus chassis, respectively.
Interestingly, the cost of small buses, that have lesser commuter carrying capacity than mofussil and MTC buses, was higher compared to other buses. The average price of a chassis for a mofussil bus is Rs14.44 lakh, while that of a MTC bus is Rs 15.62 lakh. However, the small bus chassis costs Rs 19 lakh and that of a SETC bus is Rs 23.17 lakhs, according to official documents.
The IRT also changed the chassis specifications in order to improve the life and standard of the buses. The chassis frame is to be designed for a minimum service life of ten years, as against seven years.
In addition, IRT also specified the minimum average run of each chassis. The BS IV buses constructed on the chassis should achieve 4.7 km per litre in town areas, while in mofussil and hill station routes the average run was fixed at 5.2 and 4 km per litre respectively.
In the last few months, about 986 new buses have been added to eight transport corporations. Besides, IRT had already floated tenders to build another 946 buses for the year 2019. “About 500 buses for MTC, being built at Chromepet and Karur bus building units, are nearing completion and are expected to get flagged off by next month. Apart from this, 3,000 new buses would be added to the bus fleet,” added a senior official from the transport department. With the fleet capacity of about 22,500, eight transport corporations cater to about 1.9 crore passengers a day.
Public transport
➤ 986 new buses were flagged off in the last six months
➤ IRT floated tenders to build 946 new buses
➤ IRT invites bids to procure 2,995 chassis for building new buses
➤ MTC to get 500 new buses next month