Chennai: Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) has introduced special buses to meet the additional rush of passengers during the festive season, but thinned down AC Volvo fleet by 80 per cent.
Though MTC website says that currently 69 AC buses are plying in Chennai, informed sources from the department say only 12-15 air conditioned buses are functioning in the city.
“Hundred buses were introduced in 2008. Anna Nagar had a fleet strength of 50 and the rest of the buses were at Adyar. Nine years down the line, there are only four buses in Anna Nagar and totally, only 15 buses function per day,” said an official from Anna Nagar depot.
As the two routes were not generating the expected revenue, MTC redirected a few of these buses to other sections of Chennai and the number of buses started dwindling right from the first year if its introduction.
Factors adduced to explain the situation include poor maintenance, lack of spare parts and high operational costs.
“When the buses initially came for service, only duplicate parts were used by the department as the cost of the original parts is comparatively triples the price of duplicate parts. This issue coupled with high operational costs of the buses,” said a worker in stores department at Chromepet.
With IT corridor being the most popular route for the Volvo AC bus route number 570 (Kelambakkam to CMBT) and 19B (Kelamba-kkam to T. Nagar), the passengers there rue that a maximum of five buses operate in a day.
K. Vishwanath, a regular commuter, said the frequency of air-conditioned buses was almost equal to normal buses even a year ago and the condition has worsened in the last six months.
When contacted, an official from MTC said meeting the operational costs was a major challenge and getting the spare parts is not an easy task. However, by the start of next year, most of the buses would be serviced and ready to ply.
