Commuter Inconvenience: For shelter, homeless persons turn to Ayanavaram bus depot

One of the oldest bus depots in the city, Ayanavaram bus depot, is stinking as the commuters have resorted to open urination due to the lack of toilet facilities. Besides, unauthorised parking inside the facility has been providing the necessary inglenook to the persons urinating in open.

The depot was in operation prior to 1972 under the erstwhile Tamil Nadu State Transport Department (TNSTD), until it was taken over by the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC). Even though the Ayanavaram bus depot is in the elite list of Tondiarpet, Adyar, Vadapalani, Ambattur, Madhavaram, T Nagar and Mandaveli bus depots, which are the oldest among the 32 bus depots in the city, the government is yet to build toilets for the use of commuters.

“Buses to places including Adyar and Redhills are being operated from the depot, however, there is no proper toilet facility. Many passengers are urinating in open,” a regular passenger, on the condition of anonymity, said.

Like the majority of the bus depots in the city, Ayanavaram depot also does not have adequate seating facilities for passengers waiting for buses. The bus depot has an allotted fleet of 172 buses and scheduled services of 159. The depot falls under Central Region of MTC that also comprises of Central and Perambur depots.

Creating nuisance to the commuters, several homeless persons have made the depot as their home and when DT Next visited the depot on Sunday afternoon, homeless persons, including a few women, were found sleeping on the platform.

Due to the lack of enough garbage bins inside the depot, empty water bottles were found strewn on the platform. “The officials should stop allowing private vehicles to be parked inside the depot. Also, adequate garbage bins should be provided,” the passenger added.

Transpiring the anti-social activities by tipplers, there were some empty bottles of alcohol found inside the depot.

“If the tipplers are allowed to throw alcohol bottles inside the depot, how could women commuters use the depot during the night? This is a public place and the officials should maintain the decorum of the place,” S Usha, a woman passenger said.

Usha pointed out that the breastfeeding room in depot remains closed all the time and the feeding mothers have toapproach the MTC staff to get the keys.

When asked, an official said that steps would be taken to prevent illegal parking and tipplers to misusing the facility.