The Hindu 20.08.2009
MTC to add 100 new AC buses
Vidya Venkat
| Hopes to improve patronage with increased services |
CHENNAI: The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) will be adding 100 new air-conditioned Volvo buses to its fleet in a few months.
Senior officials of the transport corporation said with this they will be able to improve the frequency of AC bus services in existing routes and launch services in new routes.
“As of now the air-conditioned buses are mostly seen running virtually empty in many of the routes. The patronage is not enough,” a senior official conceded.
“We are exploring options with regards to new AC bus routes. A study is under way to see which routes will bring good patronage for these luxury services. We will mostly expand these services to the nearby district headquarters,” the official said.
Senior officials added that as of now air-conditioned buses plying to Kancheepuram enjoyed good patronage and they would continue to operate these services only in longer routes.
They said 900 other semi-low floor vehicles will also be added to the existing fleet in another few months.
Shankar Narayanan, a BPO employee who regularly travels in the AC bus service A1 to Thiruvanmiyur, said he found that many passengers were reluctant to travel in these services as the tickets were highly priced.
“If the MTC augments these services, they should also explore options like providing monthly travel cards exclusively for these services. They can also explore options like running special services during office hours in commercial zones of the city,” he said.
Buses to MRTS stations
Meanwhile, the MTC has recently started operating some of its regular services through the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) stations in Light House and Chintadripet.
A few months ago, it extended some buses that used to terminate at Vijay Nagar terminus to the Velachery MRTS station.
A senior official of MTC said that the recent move to link its services to two more MRTS stations is part of the initiative to create inter-modal transport system.
He added that though it had been about a week since the buses were operated through the Light House and Chintadripet stations, the response was poor.
