Steps taken to make govt buses attractive to public, assures Transport Secy

Talking about the measures taken by the government, the Principal Secretary of the Transport department, J Radhakrishnan, said, “We have addressed various problems which plague TNSTC (the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation) and SETC (State Express Transport Corporation), and have advised the respective MDs to handle on a war footing immediate issues which could attract more public to the State Transport Corporation’s buses.”

Although the Tamil Nadu government recently introduced around 2000 buses to ply across the State, they too seem to be plagued by problems which are mostly man-made. While it may be recalled that this daily had pointed to the issue of even spare wheels in new buses being removed to operate older vehicles in a recent report, the state of affairs of the buses run by the State transport was highlighted a week ago when a Chennai-bound bus from Vellore suffered a flat tyre at Sriperumbudur. Although the passengers were put on another bus, the crew, when calling up the Vellore division office to inform about incident, were reportedly told that a spare wheel would be sent but that they should get a jackey from any passing truck to attach the wheel.

Another issue is the reported hiking of ticket rates over the months without proper intimation. It can be observed that ticket rates differ with different corporations, although the travel distance remain the same. For instance, passengers were charged Rs.70 for an 82-kilometre trip between Vellore and Tiruvannamalai by TNSTC Villupuram division buses plying between both the towns. However, the rate was Rs.85 in buses bound for Trichy and Kallakurichi from Vellore in TNSTC Kumbakonam buses. Buses which stopped in all villages en route, however, charged a mere Rs. 58 for the same distance, sources pointed.

Similarly, TNSTC Kumbakonam charged passengers Rs.267 for travelling between Trichy and Vellore whereas it was Rs. 237 in TNSTC Villupuram buses. This has also lead to frequent altercations between passengers and the bus crew. When asked about the issue, a senior official, however, said, “With the government fixing specific tariff, such discrepancy in ticket rates will be removed”.

A common observation of government buses travelling slower than private omni buses fails to elicit any valid response from officials. It has been noted that for commuting to Tiruchy from Vellore, it takes around seven hours for a TNSTC bus, six hours for an SETC bus, while it is only around five hours for an omni bus. Sources allege that TNSTC buses spend nearly 25 minutes in Tiruvannamalai in both directions. Similarly, the 110-kilometre distance between Madurai and Thondi is covered by private buses in around 2.5 hours while government buses take longer, sources said.

Reports of grouping of government bus services and connivance of TNSTC crew with private operators are also reasons attributed to the poor service of the State Transport Corporations.

When asked about such issues prevalent in the State Transport Corporations, Radhakrishnan said, “We have asked TNSTC to ensure that such issues are sorted immediately. With the public being willing to pay for quality service, the Transport ministry is now taking the initiative to improve services”.

With regard to the issue of the slowness in vehicular speed of government service buses, those Transport Corporation officials who usually cite reduction in diesel expenditure to be the reason have been reportedly instructed to ensure that vehicles moved faster now. “Issues such as buses plying without spare wheels and jackeys would also be addressed to ensure hassle-free rides for both the crew and passengers,” Radhakrishnan said.

Officials were also in the dark as to why an announcement by the late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in 2013-14 on procuring the comparatively more comfortable Volvo buses to connect Chennai with district headquarters was given the go by and other AC buses procured instead. “This might be due to [such] AC buses costing only around Rs. 45 lakh as against the Rs. 1.10 crore needed to purchase a Volvo bus,” official sources stated.

The State Transport ministry officials are reportedly holding talks with Volvo to procure a newly-introduced Volvo model which has met with reasonable success in Maharashtra. “The Kerala government also plans to introduce it soon and so we cannot be behind, as we also will have to provide similar vehicles,” a senior official said.

It has been learnt that tests have also been conducted along the much-in-demand Chennai–Bangalore route recently and if all goes well, the State government might opt for “wet lease” hiring of Volvo buses, where vehicles will be operated by the State government but be owned by the company itself.

The public feel that the mind-set of the government bus crew too needs to change, with the latter still sticking to old norms. While the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), when laying four- and six- lane national highways had stated that the time to cover 130 kilometres would be around two hours and thirty minutes, government buses continue to take more than hours to travel the distance, say aggrieved passengers.