MTC floats tender to study operation of pvt electric buses: Sivasankar

CHENNAI: Transport Minister SS Sivasankar has assured the trade unions that the Transport Corporation would not be privatised and also claimed that a tender has been floated to appoint a consultant to study operation of the electric buses through the gross cost contract.

In the meeting with trade union representatives of the transport corporation on the direction of the Chief Minister on Thursday, the minister said that the Transport Corporation workers can be rest assured that there is no question of privatising the corporation.

Trade unions, including the ruling DMK affiliated LPF, CITU and AITUC, have strongly opposed the MTC floating the bids for appointing a transaction advisor for operating 500 private buses on the GCC basis under the World Bank funded Chennai City Partnership project.

The Minister said that free travel of women on ordinary fare buses would be continued unaffected even after the operation of the 500 e-buses in the city through the GCC.

In the meeting, LPF president and Rajya Sabha MP M Shanmugham sought cancelling of the proposal to operate the private buses through the GCC model and fulfil the demands made during the wage settlement negotiations. CITU demanded the scrapping of the GOs 321 to 328 which prevents filling up of vacancies and recruitment of employees through a new government order. It also wanted the government to not proceed with the plans to operate e-buses as it may cause more losses to the transport corporation.

Minister Sivasankar told the unions that their demands would be fulfilled after taking to the notice of the Chief Minister.