Contract carriage bus terminus to be placed under surveillance

Chennai:

The Chennai Contract Carriage Bus Terminus (CCCBT) at Koyambedu will soon be under surveillance as Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority is planning to have cameras fixed in all corners of the terminus for safety measures.

The move comes as the entry fee for Omni buses entering the CCCBT at Koyambedu will soon be increased to Rs 200 per bus per day.

The decision to this effect was taken during the review meeting held by the Housing and Urban Development Minister Udumalai Radhakrishnan recently.

The bus terminus will also have a boom barrier at  appropriate location so that buses movement are regulated.

Mohammed A Afzal, president of Tamil Nadu Omni Bus Owners Association said that the entry fee has been increased recently to Rs 150 per bus per day in the month of June from Rs 60 per bus per day.

“Now they want to increase the entry fee to Rs 200. We first wanted some amenities to be provided and work is going on in this regard,” said Afzal.

The move to increase the fee to Rs 200 was taken to enable Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority to meet the expenditure on maintenance of the bus terminal with the funds generated from the omni bus operators.

The operators were informed that the expenditure on maintenance is very narrow from the total revenue of the CCCBT.

One of the major demands of bus operators is to develop entire lands of CCCBT plus vacant lands of the eastern side (by ignoring the lands with Court Cases), as commercial complex with facility for parking both Government and private buses, said Afzal.

“We have also urged the need to shift the dust bins from the entrance of the terminus into another location immediately as well as provide water supply for all toilets without any restriction,” he added.