Govt plans to procure additional MTC buses to boost mass transit trips

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

In a bid to reduce the inadequacy of Metropolitan Transport Corporation to handle the mass transit trips in the metropolis, plans are on to procure additional buses to close the gap in the fleet size by accessing external assistance from World Bank or Asian Development Bank or other lending agencies.

Sources told Express that since the present bus fleet of MTC, which is 3,421, is grossly inadequate to handle the mass transit trips in the metropolis, there has been a proposal to seek external assistance from World Bank or Asian Development Bank besides other sources like Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission or procuring buses from private sector by wet leasing etc.

Interestingly, Chennai Traffic and Transport Study in 1992-95 recommended a minimum fleet size of 5,000 from 1995-2000 which when compared is far from adequate as the present strength of fleet of buses is 3,400 only.

Surprisingly, the recently completed CTTS recommends 5,500 buses by 2016, 6,600 buses by 2021 and 8,000 buses by 2026. The proposal to increase the fleet was discussed during the sixth meeting of the working committee on Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority on November 2011 and it was felt that Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) could make appropriate policy to facilitate the MTC to procure additional buses.

“Even the Environmental Protection Control Authority (EPCA) at one of its periodical review meetings at Chennai suggested that MTC should aim at a bus fleet size of 10,000,” sources said.

Interestingly, as per the draft report of the Steering Committee on Urbanisation 12^th plan (2012-2017), the country requires 39,456 buses at an investment of Rs 13,759 crore