Set up WA groups to redress grievances, Min tells transport corpns

CHENNAI: Transport Minister SS Sivasankar on Wednesday directed the State transport corporations to create a grievance WhatsApp group and public relations officers’ WhatsApp group to redress passenger complaints.

After reviewing the transport corporation functioning at the Secretariat, the minister also instructed the corporations to take steps to prevent the students from travelling on the footboard by forming district-level WhatsApp groups comprising of the district school education officials and school headmasters. He directed the transport corporations to consult with the school education departments and operate buses to ensure students travel freely.

He also urged the transport corporations to operate bus services to tourist spots like Nava Tirupathi in Thoothukudi district within their jurisdictions.

In the meeting, Sivasankar said that to easily identify the ordinary bus services in which women could travel free of cost, it should be painted pink. “So far, women have done 173 crore trips since the launch of the state government’s free travel for women. With the government offering financial support under the scheme, the transport corporations are not suffering any loss. To make the scheme better, the drivers and conductors should treat the women passengers with respect,” he instructed.

The release said Transport department principal secretary Dr K Gopal asked the corporations to earn revenues by monetising the properties. “Transport corporations owned lands adjoining the highways should be developed with private participation,” he said.

He also asked corporation to operate feeder services to suburban railway stations, metro stations and airports. To avoid footboard travel, he asked officials to install automatic doors in all the buses in a phased manner.

Gopal said to reduce road accidents, the drivers and conductors should be daily tested with breath analysers.

He also instructed the corporation to make the attendance system into a digital one.