Sivasankar directs MTC to operate buses only after thorough inspection of the bus body

CHENNAI: A day after a woman fell through a hole in the floor of the MTC bus, Transport Minister SS Sivasankar directed the MTC to operate all the buses only after thoroughly inspecting the bus body conditions.

Sources said that the minister has instructed not to operate the buses which are not in good condition.

MTC has a fleet of 3,422 buses and a scheduled service of 3,233 buses. On average, nearly 3000 buses are operated in a day.

In the absence of the addition of new buses in the last four years, the average age of the bus fleet has gone up to 9.76 years. About 600 MTC buses were over 15 years old.

On Tuesday, the woman passenger was travelling by MTC bus route no 59 plying between Vallalar Nagar and Thiruverkadu. Following the accident, the MTC managing director suspended the manager and technical assistant of Basin Bridge bus depot for overlooking the maintenance.

Meanwhile, the transport department secretary has constituted a 14-member committee to hold 15th wage agreement talks with trade union representatives of the transport corporation. The committee comprises of additional secretary of the Finance Department and MTC managing director who also serves as a member secretary.

CITU state president A Soundararajan told reporters after the conciliation talks that the next round of talks would be held on February 25. "The Supreme Court has dismissed the state government appeal against the dearness allowance hike for the retired employees. We are demanding the government to provide DA hikes and arrears for retired employees. We also sought 14 months DA arrears for serving employees, " he said. The next round of talks would be held on February 25.