Fund crunch stalls MTC bus procurement

MTC sources said that the late chief minister J Jayalalithaa had announced in the assembly in September 2016 that a total of 100 new small buses would be operated soon to increase road transport connectivity to remote residential areas. Subsequently, the officials said that they had floated tenders and small buses would hit the road either in January or February, 2017. 

However, the officials are yet to procure such buses. The reason, an official source said, was that they were already under mounting financial crisis. 

“Recently, we sent another proposal seeking funds and the officials convened a meeting. Further, we also explained about old regular buses and its tender process, for which the officials assured that funds would be allocated in the budget,” said an MTC official, on conditions of anonymity. 

Another official said that the political confusion after the demise of the former chief minister was also another factor and that no file and proposal from the MTC was paid attention to. The officials also planned to operate new regular buses. 

“Such a proposal is in the pipeline and we may soon buy over 1,000 buses,” said another official. When contacted by DTNext, a senior official said, “However, we are in the hope that enough funds will be allotted soon and small buses will be bought for operation, after which regular buses will be procured.”