CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government is to soon introduce newly designed special buses for the differently-abled persons which will enable them to wheel their tricycles/wheelchairs straight into the buses with a provision of a suitable ramp facility in each of those buses.
This was decided at a five-day meeting with directors of various transport corporations in the state which concluded at the Secretariat on Friday. The meeting was chaired by Transport department principal secretary, Mr. B. Chandra Mohan. Heads of eight state transport corporations participated in the meeting. At present ten buses were being operated on specific routes in Chennai for the benefit of physically-challenged .
Mr. Chandra Mohan said in the last three years, 4,802 new transport buses were introduced by the government including special buses and involving a capital outlay of Rs 1,442 crore. As announced by the Chief Minister, Edappadi K Palaniswami in the Assembly recently, 2,000 new buses will be purchased and join the state government's fleet.
Stating that steps were being taken to introduce BS-VI complaint buses under the transport corporations, an official release on the decisions taken at the meeting said that apart from 500 electric buses in main cities, 2,213 new BS-VI complaint buses at a cost of `1,580 crore in the first phase will be introduced. A project agreement between the State government and the German-based development bank, KfW was signed recently in the presence of Chief Minister, Edappadi K Palaniswami, it said.
Mr. Chandra Mohan appealed to officials to properly maintain the buses equipped with passenger friendly features as they were preferred by public thereby increasing revenue.
Tamil Nadu transport corporations bagged nine awards at the all-India level for efficient functioning for the year 2017-18, the official also disclosed.
