City bus stops don’t offer shelter for commuters

Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) officials said that there were over 1,060 bus shelters inside the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) limits and 75 per cent of these were in poor condition. “It is a fact that most of the bus shelters are in a shamble. The officials concerned failed to undertake periodical maintenance of these facilities. 

Going by the present scenario, many of the shelters just stand as decrepit structures and are unusable,” says T Manikandan, of Valasaravakkam, a regular bus commuter. He added that some bus shelters did not have a roof while others did not have seats. The situation is same even on arterial roads like Poonamallee High Road and Anna Salai. 

“Bus shelters located on arterial roads are also in bad shape. Since large number of bus commuters prefer MTC buses on these stretches, it is high time the officials looked into this,” says T Lokesh, a resident of Vadapalani. 

Though bus bays are becoming increasingly popular in the city, unauthorised and haphazard parking of vehicles, particularly share and ordinary auto rickshaws, at many MTC bus stops prevent the MTC buses from to entering the bay. Commuters lament that due to such vehicles, they have to wade through the congestion to board the right buses. 

Still worse, some MTC drivers go past the prescribed bus stops because of unauthorised parking.  In the year 2009, the city corporation installed GPS systems in the bus shelters near Anna University, Koyambedu and Anna Nagar to enable passengers to know through display boards the exact arrival time of buses at the stop. 

However, all such facilities have mysteriously vanished. Along with the GPS systems, several bus shelters even had digital display boards for showing the route numbers. Now, most MTC bus shelters do not have such display boards and the ones that remain are malfunctioning. A GCC official, in charge of Bus Route Roads said that they have already begun renovation works of damaged bus shelters. “We are also exploring the possibility for constructing new bus shelters,” he said. 

When asked about restoration of GPS on the shelters, the official replied that they have kept that option open and but not decided yet.  Similarly, a senior MTC official said, they had posted staff at crowded bus stops to monitor vehicles, except MTC buses, and not allow them to enter the bus bay.