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Parking facilities for two wheelers at the MTC bus terminuses in Chennai
Posted on: 05/Nov/2020 9:16:20 AM
Parking facilities for two wheelers in the MTC bus terminuses!! Sound’s incredible isn’t it!!
The Coronavirus pandemic has turned the lives upside down and the fear of the pandemic has made many to use their two wheelers instead of the MTC buses to go to their places of destination in Chennai. For the benefit of the commuters, the transportation experts and passengers have urged MTC or Metropolitan Transport Corporation to make available parking facilities in the MTC bus terminuses.
It is clear that after the resumption of the MTC bus services in Chennai the patronage has come down steeply by 60 percent now as many commuters prefer to use their two wheelers.
Information gathered is that before the lockdown in Chennai every day more than 30 lakhs passengers travelled by MTCV buses and in the post lockdown period just 12 to 13 lakhs passengers per day travelled by MTC buses.
The passengers are having fear regarding the spread of Covid-19 infection and hence they prefer to travel by two wheelers. This was according to Mr. V. Dhayanantham, general secretary of CIFU affiliated union in MTC.
He hinted that the decrease in the patronage started when the ticket rates were increased in the month of January in 2018. At that time, many began switching to the two wheelers to reach their destinations. The situation became worse due to the Coronavirus infection pandemic. He wanted MTC to provide parking facilities for two wheelers and for bicycles in the bus terminuses in Chennai.
It must be taken into account that the parking facilities were available in railway stations and in the metro stations. Truth is providing parking facilities at the MTC bus terminuses would increase the revenue for MTC.
A regular commuter belonging to Villivakkam expressed his thoughts about the parking facilities at the MTC bus terminuses. He spoke about how passengers boarding buses from Villivakkam bus terminus have been demanding two wheeler parking facilities for many years. He added that the passengers have been parking their two wheelers haphazardly on the roads leading to the traffic congestion.
Bus terminuses must have space for both two wheelers and for bicycle parking. This was mentioned by Mr. K.P. Subramanium, a retired professor of Anna University. He threw light on how the bus terminus has been located in prime locations having space crunch.
It was later brought to light by an official belonging to MTC that most of the bus terminuses located in Chennai lack spaces to park buses due to increase in the fleet strength and due to scheduled services over the years. He concluded that the parking space would be provided when the proposal to modernise the bus terminuses in Chennai includining T. Nagar is taken up.
