The Deccan Chronicle 14.10.2010
The ‘modern’ bus shelters, promised three years back by Corporation of Chennai and the metropolitan transport corporation (MTC), remain only on paper. The common man for whom buses are the only affordable means of transport, still continues to languish under sun and rain, for most bus shelters are roofless.
Even though the corporation, under its city beautification project, erected a few modern stainless steel bus shelters near the newly-constructed secretariat and Marina beach, in other areas, people have to stand under damaged shelters.
The corporation proposal to modernise the bus shelter was first hit by legal hurdles and then was caught up in a policy decision on revenue sharing. The corporation has around 740 bus shelters, including 377 handed over by the MTC following a court order recently.
After two years of unsuccessful bidding, the Chennai corporation council recently approved the proposals to modernise 99 bus shelters. Under the project, shelters made of stainless steel would be erected according to the design specifications of the civic body. “Work orders have been issued to put up bus shelters at 99 locations, including some that were removed. The new bus shelters will be put up in a month,” mayor M. Subramanian said.
The private contractor quoted `2.04 lakh for erecting each of the shelters. The contractor will have to execute the work on a build-maintain-transfer (BMT) basis and generate revenue from advertisements on the top and rear-side panels. Overall, the corporation will earn `2.02 crore a year as revenue from the 99 bus shelters, he said, and added that tenders would be floated for all shelters in a phased manner.
The MTC also has launched a drive to modernise 500 bus shelters after the civic body approved its revised design for modernising bus shelters. “We are taking steps to modernise the bus shelters as the delay is resulting in a loss of revenue,” said a senior MTC official. The official pointed out that the MTC gets just `30,000 from each of its shelters annually.
