CHENNAI: On a surprise inspection of arrangements ahead of the Bakrid festival and extended holidays at the Vandalur-Kilambakkam bus terminus on Wednesday, Transport Minister A Vijay Tamilan Parthiban surprised reserved passengers, who had boarded their buses, by requesting them to wait while accommodating unreserved passengers who were hassled by long wait time due to unavailability of buses.
The minister’s move, though done to reduce overcrowding due to festival rush, left reserved passengers hassled.
The minister justified his decision saying a large number of passengers without reservations had gathered at major bus termini along with reserved passengers, creating confusion and anxiety among travellers, particularly families travelling with children.
Later, responding to criticism over unreserved passengers being allowed on reserved buses, the minister said the arrangement was temporary and authorities were planning to create separate queues for reserved and unreserved passengers to avoid confusion in future.
A senior transport corporation official said that only 1.5 lakh people travelled from Kilambakkam on Wednesday, as against 2.5 lakh that travel during Deepavali. "Some passengers voiced their concern about delays after buses returning to Kilambakkam got stuck in traffic. We managed the crowd with the available buses," the official said, noting that as many as 30 Kumabakonam corporation buses had no passengers last night and they departed only on Thursday morning.
The minister, meanwhile, said review meetings with officials had been conducted in advance to prevent overcrowding and traffic congestion. Buses were routed through multiple depots and different access routes to avoid traffic bottlenecks.
He said passengers had mainly complained that the online booking application was slow. The issue will be brought to the chief minister’s attention and a more advanced version of the application will be developed, he added.