CM flags off 17 more red buses for MTC

Officials of Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) said that a good number of new buses are being operated along the routes 109 (Broadway to Kovalam), 66 (Poonthamalle to Tambaram) and 570 (Kelambakkam to CMBT).  Managing Director of MTC, Anbu Abraham said, “The new buses are being currently operated based on the collection and distance. We want to replace vehicles for long distance routes due to safety reasons and to provide comfort for passengers.”

Last month, the MTC received 56 new buses and before that, it had received one bus by the end of 2018. As of now, the IT corridor has the most number of buses due to lack of rail connectivity. Other major routes are Broadway to Red Hills, Tirunindravur to Poonamallee, Thiruvanmiyur to T Nagar and Tambaram to Sriperumpudur.  In the original announcement, the MTC was promised 245 buses. But MTC is yet to receive 171 buses. Currently, MTC has a total of 3,716 buses on the road of which, 1,120 buses are more than 10 years old. While 1,921 buses are five to 10 years old and 674 buses are less than five years old.

Among the buses flagged off by the Chief Minister, 72 are for Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation of Villupuram, 43 for Salem, 75 for Coimbatore and 68 for Kumbakonam.