The Metropolitan Transport Corporation’s (MTC) long-standing issues continue to plague the transportation lifeline for many Chennaites.
What’s it about? The MTC runs over 40,000 trips a day with 30 lakh commuters. It’s currently in poor shape, with no new buses in three years, and a sixth of them are supposed to be decommissioned in the next few months since they’re over 15 years old. Its efforts to buy new buses have run into legal issues.
- More than half of the buses in the fleet have operated for over 6 lakh km. An Urban Affairs memo states a metro city should have 60 buses for every one lakh people. So, the MTC should have at least 4,500 but it has only 3,200.
- For many, the experience of riding on a bus is uncomfortable. Safety issues, leaky roofs, and jammed window panes affect the service quality. The MTC told the court that it could buy only a portion of the new buses due to fund shortages.
Who said what? TK Pandian of the passengers’ welfare association said even the sharp edges on seats had caused injuries. Transportation activist R Rengachari said the MTC should find a way to add more buses to its aging fleet. The government’s attempt through a gross cost contract (GCC) has stalled due to opposition from workers’ unions.
(Image credits: Bharathmeister, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
