Chennai to bid adieu to its last A/C bus this year

The bus route number 570 plying along Kelambakkam is the last one in the series to cater to the demands of passengers travelling to the IT corridor on Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR).

A senior official from the State-run transport utility said, “Around two A/C buses in the city were terminated from service last month. The last vehicle will be pulled off the road because the bus has touched its life span. Other Corporations across various cities took an effort to maintain its fleet with the replacement of new vehicles. We had avoided such measures for various reasons.” K Vijay Kumar, a software professional in Sholinganallur, said, “It wasn’t pleasant travelling in the A/C vehicles in the city. For the first three years, passengers had a smooth ride but of late, the engines had developed problems and journeys abruptly came to an end.”  

The Transport Corporation stopped subscribing to the Annual Maintenance Corporation (AMC) with the manufacturer, Volvo, citing high maintenance of the A/C vehicles.  Another senior official said, “The engineers in our maintenance team are not capable of fixing the vehicles. Only assigned engineers of Volvo can do the repairs and manage maintenance cost. The Corporation purchased the fleet despite knowing the shortcomings.” 

In 2008, 10 Volvo buses were introduced on a trial basis. The MTC later added more than 100 buses within three years to its existing fleet. Around 50 buses were kept under maintenance of the Adyar bus depot and the rest under the Anna Nagar bus depot. 

The bus routes were rationalised after the Corporation started incurring losses. The buses ply along various routes including 102 (Broadway to Kelambakkam), 114 (Red Hills to Vandalur) and 576 (T Nagar to Kelambakkam). 

Last year, MTC stopped 13 services, with the buses remaining idle at the depots due to various mechanical failures.