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In Chennai, many commuters could not get MTC buses on Wednesday
Posted on: 07/Mar/2019 10:19:26 AM
With more than 400 MTC buses diverted to prime minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi’s election campaign, the commuters in Chennai suffered on Wednesday, 6th March 2019. The commuters waited for the MTC buses for longer periods of time on Wednesday and this was unusual. Throughout the day, the MTC buses carried AIADMK, BJP and other allied party workers to and from the venue at Kilambakkam and as a result of that the MTC bus services got disrupted.
As per the officials belonging to MTC it is brought out that it was not unusual to rent out buses and an amount of Rs 8500 per buses was collected. It was pointed out by a senior official that the initial demand was for Rs 500 but ended up giving more than 400 from different bus depots based on the demand.
Picking up of party workers from 9am in the morning was done by the district and area level party functionaries as they were assigned the work. Traffic congestion was created as the buses were parked along various roads like Mount Road (near Nandanam traffic signal) and also in other places like Adambakkam and Thiruvanmiyur etc. Only after the party workers gathered at these above mentioned places, the MTC buses started plying.
According to a conductor based at Vadapalani bus depot, the MTC buses operated without conductors and it was not proper and was against the norm. He also hinted about placing sticker stating that the bus was rented. He finally explained about the importance of conductor and said conductor must be allotted so that the commuters do not face any issues.
It is well known that bus stands in places like T. Nagar, Vadapalani, Thiruvanmiyur and Tambaram are very important. In these bus stands due to lack of MTC buses or reduced number of MTC buses many passengers suffered especially in the peak hours.
As per the MTC officials it is clear that most of the buses that were rented out were spare buses and operations were scheduled to make sure that there was no lag. Officials pointed out that the delay was due to the traffic congestion in southern suburbs.
