Staff shortage hits MTC operations in Chennai

According to reliable sources in the Transport Department, the MTC stopped its recruitment in 2016 and the manpower has reduced to 21,000 from 26,000 employees since then. “We need an actual strength of 26,000 employees to run a total fleet of 3,439 buses. Though recruitment took a backseat, the employees were retiring and took voluntary retirement from the services,” an official said.

Treasurer of Labour Progressive Federation, K Natarajan pointed out that shortage of staff was managed by pulling out buses from the city roads putting passengers in a fix. “We are currently operating with a fleet strength of 2,900 buses. This includes ageing buses which remain idle after deemed irreparable. Also, buses were pulled out from the routes with less patronage,” he said.

President of Confederation of Association for Integrated Urban Development, DS Sivasamy, pointed out that the corporation has stopped several bus services in the past few years including in routes between Chromepet and Hasthinapuram, 570 bus series (Koyambedu to Kelambakkam) and 19B (Kelambakkam to Saidapet) which were abruptly stopped causing inconvenience to the commuters. “The recent move of the MTC indirectly discourage commuters to utilize the public transport system,” he said.

However, the MTC has denied the allegation of staff shortage and dwindling number of buses. “The MTC carried out modification of bus routes a couple of months ago. This was done to maximize the revenue by catering to a wide range of commuters,” said A Anbu Abraham, Managing Director of MTC. Chennai district has eight regional managers who directly supervise 34 depots in the city. The MTC has instructed regional managers to find possible ways to augment the revenue of poorly performing bus routes.

The branch managers are currently conducting a study to find bus depots that comprises of routes with less commuters. “Then, we are going to devise a mechanism to attract customers,” said Anbu Abraham.

As the schedule that MTC follows was created two decades ago, updating it according to the road and traffic condition at present will provide some respite to the drivers, say experts. The Transport Department provides two working shifts – eight hours and 16 hours – for the drivers and conductors of the MTC. According to the rules, the drivers working in the16-hour shift will have the privilege of three rest days, excluding their weekly off, while those in 8-hour shift will have one rest day in a week.

Further, the department has mandated the drivers working in the longest shift to cover 220 kilometres in a day. Likewise, the persons working in 8-hour shift should cover 110 kilometers per day. “The drivers of both the shifts are plying more than the prescribed limits. At the end of the day, drivers in 16-hour shift would have covered approximately 410 kilometres and the other 200 kilometres,” claims MV Ramamurthy of the Netaji Transport Workers Union.

He cites that the department is adhering to the schedule that was designed some decades ago. “In the timetable, drivers are given resting time of 15 minutes after completing a trip. In reality, the drivers can steer vehicles to the depot only after a delay of more than 20 minutes due to the choked roads in the city. The authorities in the depot ask us to give up our break time to adjust the delay,” he pointed out. 

“The employees of the 8-hour shift also end up working extra hours. Many are forced to drive 16 hours due to lack of manpower,” a driver attached to Tondiarpet depot said. “The bus routes were designed after factoring in various aspects including traffic and vehicle population. But things had undergone a sea of change since then. We need to conduct urban studies and take references from other transport corporations operating in other Metropolitan cities,” said Meenakshi Ramesh, the co-founder of Citizen Matters and researcher in Urban studies.

When contacted, a higher official of MTC, said, “The drivers voluntarily opt to work under 16-hour shift for having four rest days in a week. The management never compels workers to work in a specific shift”.