Chennai roads witness a sudden spurt in number of ordinary bus services

Officials said that they would still explore possibilities to increase the number of white board services after a proper study.

Earlier, the MTC received a host of complaints from commuters, political parties and the public for withdrawing many ordinary services across the city. The public perceived the move as an indirect method to hike fare. However, the MTC buckled under increasing pressure to resume the ordinary services in the city. 

“It is surprising that I see a sizable number of ordinary buses on different routes and I regularly commute from Aminjikarai to Sai Nagar (route number: 15F from Broadway to Vadapalani) and all buses used to be operated as express services previously. Now there is a marked change,” said M Rajendran, a commuter. 

Similarly, K Meganathan, another commuter from Chintadripet, said, “Though this has been a long-term complaint, finally the officials have heeded our demands.” MTC crew, on condition of anonymity, said that they were instructed to change the destination boards to white colour on many routes a week ago. 

A senior MTC employee indicated that the senior officials may have instructed so with an eye on the by-election in RK Nagar. “However, I am not certain that whether such system will continue henceforth,” he added and said around 300 buses were converted 

into ordinary services across the city. 

When contacted, a senior MTC official told DTNext that the corporation had already instructed respective branch managers to operate ordinary buses. “However, the staff did not conform to the norms and this prompted us to inspect the operation of buses recently. Then only we came to know that the staff operated lesser number of white board buses. Some of the depots did not operate ordinary services at all,” the official said. “We issued a stern warning and instructed the staff to operate ordinary services, as was done earlier,” the official added.