CHENNAI: Amid the announcement of an indefinite strike by trade unions starting Tuesday, the transport department on Monday announced that it would operate 19,484 buses from January 12 to 14 for the upcoming Pongal festival. On an average, government buses transport around 6 to 7 lakh commuters during Pongal every year, with 60-70% of them travelling without reservations. With train tickets fully booked and omni bus fares soaring, uncertainty hangs over travel plans of lakhs of commuters.
Transport Minister SS Sivasankar said all scheduled services and special buses would operate as planned with the support of LPF workers’ union (affiliated to DMK) and a few others. However, trade union sources said LPF and the other unions make up only about 40-45% of the workforce, and that the material impact of the strike will become apparent on Tuesday. Meanwhile, depot managers and other officials have instructed contract-based drivers and conductors to report to work without fail. The total workforce across eight transport undertakings stands at 1.15 lakh with a fleet capacity of 19,500.
Disclosing the decision to deploy buses for Pongal, the minister said the scheduled 6,300 buses and 4,706 special buses would be operated from Chennai. Furthermore, 8,478 buses are scheduled to operate from outside Chennai, linking various parts of the state. Similarly, to facilitate return journeys, a total of 17,589 buses are set to ply between January 16-18, said Sivasankar.
SETC buses will exclusively ply from Kilambakkam KCBT to Tiruchy and other southern districts for passengers with reserved tickets. Meanwhile TNSTC mofussil buses operated by Salem, Villupuram and other transport corporations will be operated from five bus terminals: CMBT, MMBT, KK Nagar MTC bus stand, Tambaram (MEPX and Valluvar Gurukulam School bus stop) and Poonamallee bypass, between January 12 and 14.
Earlier on Monday, the fourth round of negotiations between trade union leaders and the transport minister ended in failure at the secretariat. Soundararajan of CITU, R Kamalakannan of Anna Thozhirsanga Peravai (ATP) (affiliated to AIADMK), and others jointly announced the failure, stating that a bus strike would commence from January 9 as declared previously.
Soundarajan said buses would cease operations from 12 am on Tuesday morning. “Buses beginning their journey before 12 am would reach their final destination without making a return trip.” Furthermore, he dismissed the government’s claim of having enough workers to operate the buses, asserting that the extent of the strike’s severity will become evident from Tuesday.
Kamalakannan noted that their intention is not to cause inconvenience to commuters. He pointed out that they had submitted a petition in August 2023 outlining their demands but the government failed to take any action. The unions had demanded for the release of Dearness Allowance (DA), that had been frozen since 2015, to all retired workers and a section of existing employees. However, the minister had responded that the government was willing to discuss all the issues raised but only after Pongal.