The Hindu 19.04.2010
Transportation infrastructure stretched to limit
Ajai Sreevatsan and K. Lakshmi
| “A major problem is that the city has expanded without allocating enough space for facilities like bus depots” |
Photo: R.Ragu. 
IN DEMAND: A quick sprint to catch a crowded bus is part of the daily routine of many. Commuters seen at the LIC bus stop in Chennai recently.
CHENNAI: The city is at the crossroads. After more than a decade of rapid expansion, the cropping up of new industrial hubs and exponential growth in private vehicle population, the transportation infrastructure is stretched to the limit.
In the cacophony of rush-hour traffic lie hidden stories about lives of school and college children who spend more hours on travel every day than they get to study, fragile and old flower sellers who spend a significant share of their daily income on transport and software professionals whose idea of leisure is three hours spent inside a company bus every day.
B. Rajeswari, who travels from Retteri to Nerkundram daily, says that travel time to Nerkundram is 45 minutes. But, she spends over one-and-a-half hours as there are not enough bus services. She walks nearly 3 km to reach the main road as autorickshaws are a rarity in her locality.
Commuters like her often spend Rs.50 to travel in autorickshaws for distance as little as 3 km.
Travel cost
R. Sekar, a resident of Pattabiram, says he spends nearly Rs.100 towards train ticket and fuel daily to come to the city for work. “I spend almost one-third of my earnings on transport. I also pay Rs.150 towards parking fee at the railway station. My travel expenses have doubled in the past two years,” he says.
Many commuters complain that a decrease in ordinary bus services has forced them to either opt for costlier bus services or private transport to reach their destination on time.
S. Anjalai, a flower vendor from Kannagi Nagar, says she travels for almost two hours to Parry's Corner every day for work. “Most often, ordinary bus services are not reliable. I take share autorickshaws to the nearest bus stop. I don't have an option but to pay Rs.11 to travel by deluxe buses.”
Of her daily earning of Rs.60, she spends Rs.20 on travel.
V. Madhavan of Villivakkam decided to ride nearly 40 km to his workplace in Sriperumbudur owing to lack of adequate public transportation facilities. “It used to take me almost an hour to reach Koyambedu as there are no direct services. From there, I have to transit at an intermediary location to go to my workplace as there are no buses to Sriperumbudur during rush hour.”
Operational lapses
For commuters like M. Thuyamurthy, a resident of Thondiarpet, systemic lapses in the operation of MTC services that lead to a bulk of the commuter traffic being diverted to share autorickshaws is a daily sight.
Through an RTI petition, he found out that routes such as 15B (Tiruvottiyur to CMBT), T1 (Tondiarpet to Thiruvanmiyur) and 6E (Tollgate to Thiruvanmiyur) on an average earn Rs.166 a day. “Nobody knows why 6E route is operated. There is just one bus a day and nobody uses it because the timings are not known. Better strategies have to be adopted if public transportation has to be viable.”
He says reintroducing short distance cut services at least during rush hour would help. “During rush hour, buses get filled at the depot itself. Providing a service from Royapuram to High Court or Anna Salai makes more sense than extending it up to Thiruvanmiyur.”
Admitting that cut services would increase frequency and help in crowd clearance, a senior MTC official, says, “We would be very happy to operate such services on select routes, but there has to be proper representation from commuters. Most of the demands that we get are for long distance routes.”
An internal MTC estimation also points to the fact that while the Corporation operates 3,037 buses, about 5,000 buses are needed to meet current demand.
According to the MTC official, a major problem is that the city has expanded without allocating enough space for public transportation infrastructure such as bus depots.
“It is the duty of the local body to build depots for which the MTC will pay a usage fee. We do not even have funds to buy adequate buses. How can we pay for the land and then build depots?” he asks. “The last fare revision was in 2001. Every kilometre that we operate, we incur a loss of 2.5 paise,” he adds.
