Fill vacant MTC posts to operate all buses: Ramadoss
He added that a majority of passengers depend on buses despite the city having metro trains, suburban trains and MRTS services. As private bus operation is not allowed in Chennai, MTC should fulfill the travel needs of poor people.
CHENNAI: Citing that the MTC could not operate 29.70 lakh trips in 2022-2023 due to shortage of drivers, PMK founder S Ramadoss urged the state government to fill vacant posts and save transport corporations.
In his statement, the senior leader said that stopping one-sixth of total trips of MTC buses due to manpower shortage is a shame to the transport department. "Due to the shortage in drivers, more than 500 buses were parked in depots every day. Considering an average of 75 passengers traveled in each trip, 22.27 crore passengers were put into difficulties in 2022-2023. This could not be condoned as the MTC failed to serve the people, " he said.
He added that a majority of passengers depend on buses despite the city having metro trains, suburban trains and MRTS services. As private bus operation is not allowed in Chennai, MTC should fulfill the travel needs of poor people.
"PMK has been urging the government to increase the number of buses to 8,000. Without increasing the number of buses, MTC has failed to operate its existing buses. As many as 700 employees have retired in June. Of them, 100 employees are from MTC. Due to this, MTC may be unable to operate an additional 100 buses during the current year, " he said.
DT Next reported about the issue on September 30 highlighting that the MTC has recorded a total trips loss of 38.84 lakh in 2022-23 including 29.70 lakh trips loss due to want of crew and 9.12 lakh trips loss due to other reasons.
