Mere 60 pc patronage reason for transport loss, explains Vijayabhaskar 

“Government operates 22,000 buses across the state, including 12,000 buses in rural areas, but despite the huge number of buses in service people use only 60 per cent of operations. Due to the low patronage the State Transport Corporation is incurring Rs 7,000 crore loss per day,” said the Minister.

AIADMK MLA S Semmalai, at the question hour, asked whether the state government is having any special scheme to increase the number of commuters using public transport. “The cost of the vehicles and the fuel cost has escalated in the recent years and people are facing difficulty in using vehicles. If government develops more public transport utilities people will be benefitted,” said Semmalai.

He also said that in cities like Hong Kong and countries like Russia, Philippines and England large number of people use public transport because it is safe and cheap. Recently, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari accepted that in China for every 1,000 persons there are six buses, but in India there are only four buses for every 10,000 persons which shows that our governments should focus more on public transport.

The Minister replied that State Transport Department has introduced new sleeper, semi-sleeper, air-conditioned sleeper, air-conditioned sleeper cum semi-sleeper and toilet-attached buses to increase the usage of public buses. Along with the new buses, government has also introduced flexi-fare where the fare will be 10 per cent lesser between Monday and Thursday.

The Minister further said that Chennai Metropolitan Transport Corporation will work together with Chennai Metro to bring out common mobility card and government is also planning to introduce bus rapid transit system.