Sometimes, public transport can turn up some really creative elements. They may be just plain decorations or they may be functional, but there is no denying that there is some creativity involved in it.
And that’s where BEST’s Bus Chowky at Maharana Pratap Chowk, Mazagaon gets full points. A bus chowky is a bus terminus where there is no full-fledged bus stand and starters assign duties. Since this one is in South Bombay, it also acts as a payment centre for customers to pay their BEST electricity bills.
Fellow bus fan and photographer Rupak Dhakate shared this picture on Instagram.
As you can see, the above Bus Chowky is painted to look exactly like BEST’s iconic red buses. Not just that, it also has the bus depot name and number along with the registration number painted on: 207/CN belonging to the Mumbai Central depot bearing the registration number MH-01-LA-6052.
Don’t forget to follow Rupak on Instagram: @rd.stic!
Next time you head to Maharana Pratap Chowk in Mazagaon to either catch a bus or pay your electricity bill, do check it out.
Featured Image: Maharana Pratap Chowk Bus Chowky and Bill Payment Centre by Rupak Dhakate (Used with permission)
With the impending opening up of the Vandalur Kilambakkam Bus Terminus in southern Chennai, one fear among many of the city’s residents is not going away. The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) has proposed to shut down the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT) (also known as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr MGR Bus Terminus or MGR Koyambedu) permanently.
A little background
Broadway Bus Terminus. Photo Credit: Commercial Vehicles Magazine
Opened in 2002, CMBT is a 37-acre bus station that serves as Chennai’s primary terminus for mofussil and long distance buses operated by various government agencies. It is owned by the CMDA and operated jointly by the six divisions of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC), namely TNSTC Villupuram, TNSTC Coimbatore, TNSTC Salem, TNSTC Kumbakonam, TNSTC Tirunelveli and TNSTC Madurai. The remaining two arms of the TNSTC, the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) and the State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) also play a role in the daily operations.
Prior to 2002, Chennai had no dedicated bus station for long-distance buses. Few SETC buses usually operated out of one half of the Broadway bus terminus. Other SETC and nearby states’ buses would operate out of a vacant plot of land opposite Chennai Fort railway station, which today houses the Government Dental College and Hospital while private buses would operate from the Gandhi-Irvin Bridge Road near Chennai Egmore railway station on the banks of the Cooum river.
In the late 1990s, the wholesale market located at Kothawal Chavadi was moved to a 295 acre plot in Koyambedu. After this, the entire operations of all government buses was shifted to the new bus terminus at CMBT. A separate 6.7 acre bus station was built across the road, adjacent to the whole market. Named the Chennai Contract Carriage Bus Terminus (CCCBT), it handles between 350 to 450 private buses and 5,000 passengers a day.
Till 2018, CMBT was the hub for all TNSTC and SETC buses, as well as buses operated by the RTCs of Puducherry (PRTC), Karnataka (KSRTC), Kerala (also KSRTC), Andhra Pradesh (APSRTC), and Telangana (TSRTC). In 2018, TNSTC buses bound for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, as well as APSRTC and TSRTC buses were shifted out to Madhavaram Mofussil Bus Terminus (MMBT).
Madhavaram has its problems
Madhavaram Mofussil Bus Terminus (MMBT). Photo Credits: BNR Infrastructure
MMBT is an 8 acre, two-level bus terminus located at Madhavaram, adjacent to CMDA’s truck terminal, at the intersection of Grand Northern Trunk Road (GNT Road) that forms National Highway 16 (formerly NH5) and Inner Ring Road (IRR/State Highway 2). While it does feature two platforms for MTC buses, it otherwise lacks good connectivity. There are a few buses that connect it to CMBT and a lot of buses that connect it to Broadway or Vallalar Nagar (V Nagar/Mint Street). Passengers arriving from CMBT have to cross the road at the roundabout which witnesses heavy truck traffic. While MMBT and CMBT are located barely 10km apart, it can take up to 30-40 minutes to reach there.
Around 315 buses use the terminus daily, catering to an average of 12,000 passengers, with a higher number over the weekends. While TNSTC and APSRTC operate numerous services to Andhra Pradesh, TSRTC operates one Volvo service to Hyderabad. APSRTC operates several buses to Vijayawada. There are no buses to Visakhapatnam or Yanam and SETC doesn’t operate a single bus into either Telugu-speaking state. In fact the destination with the highest number of SETC routes apart from Chennai is Bangalore.
MMBT can handle 42 buses on the ground level and another 50 from the upper level. However, only government buses currently operate from MMBT while private buses continue to operate from CCCBT. This puts the former, especially APSRTC buses at a major disadvantage. Interestingly, some of TNSTC’s buses bound to Tirupati start from CMBT, which also gives it an unfair advantage over its Andhra Pradesh counterpart.
Connectivity to Madhavaram will eventually improve drastically. The under-construction lines 3 and 5 of the Chennai Metro both start at Madhavaram Milk Colony, located to the northeast of MMBT with Line 5 have a station outside MMBT. It will further continue on IRR and meet the Green Line at Koyambedu (not CMBT) and then at Alandur before meeting the MRTS at St Thomas Mount/Parangimalai. While the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) expects all three lines of Phase 2 to be completed by 2025, our friend TheMetroRailGuyestimates it to be completed no sooner than 2028.
Now coming to Vandalur Kilambakkam
While CMBT is currently Asia’s largest bus terminus at 37 acres, it will be soon dwarfed by the Vandalur Kilambakkam bus terminus that is spread across a whopping 88.5 acres. A timely reminder here that Delhi’s Millenium Park is not a bus station but a depot and therefore not Asia’s largest bus station.
With a total built-up area of 6.4 lakh square feet, it will feature 215 bus bays of which 130 will be for government buses and 85 will serve private buses. It will also have parking space for 300 buses, 275 cars and over 3,500 two-wheelers. An MTC terminal is being built adjacent to it, spread over 7.4 acres, nearly the area of MMBT. Interestingly the entire bus terminus lies within a protected and prohibited zone of the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) as it contains Megalith Burial Sites. The National Monument Authority (NMA) gave a green signal so long as no commercial development took place for 100m in the region except for greenery and the CMDA installed the required signage.
By road, the distance between CMBT and Kilambakkam is exactly 30km if one were to take IRR till Kathipara and then continue onto Grand Southern Trunk Road (GST Road). The distance is the same if one were to go to Maduravoyal and take the Chennai Bypass till Irumbuliyur and then proceed along GST Road. Outer Ring Road (ORR) terminates on GST Road just north of the bus station. The nearest railway stations are Vandalur and Urapakkam on the Southern Line of the suburban railway, both of which are at least 10 minutes away. As for Metro, the nearest station is Chennai International Airport, located 16km away. After a long tussle between the Highways Department and CMRL, an extension of the Blue Line from Airport to Kilambakkam is on the map. The former wanted to build an elevated corridor on the route and the metro’s height will be decided accordingly. However, this will take several years to reach fruition and till then there will be heavy traffic. CMRL has also initiated feasibility studies to extend Line 3 (Madhavaram Milk Colony to Siruseri) to Kilambakkam via Kelambakkam (Get ready for more confusion). However this is light years away since the depot is at Madhavaram and most of the line runs underground and without a depot connection, nothing can happen.
One theory that I have heard is that private players would lobby the government to let them continue operating at CCCBT. This would put all TNSTC services at an unfair disadvantage and would hurt the poorer sections of society the most. Further, GST Road is the most congested highway in Chennai since it acts as a gateway to the entire south from Coimbatore to Madurai to Trichy to Tirunelveli and Nagarcoil. The time saved by buses in exiting the city will be lost in reaching the terminus. Auto and cab fares will end up costing the same as an intercity luxury bus ticket while bus journeys with luggage in MTC buses would be unbearable.
The worst hit would be commuters towards the West: Those heading to Vellore, Bangalore, Hosur, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri and even Salem, Erode and Coimbatore. Passengers living in North Chennai will also be affected badly. The bus journey from Bangalore which takes approximately six hours from Shantinagar to CMBT will go up by at least an hour and then there is the extra hour lost in getting to Chennai city itself.
Note: Bangalore-bound passengers won’t have to travel to Kilambakam at all. But it’s worse. Read the update section at the bottom of the post please.
The way ahead
The way ahead for CMBT isn’t all that difficult. It currently has connectivity to most parts of Chennai thru MTC buses, has a metro connection to both the major railheads (MGR Chennai Central and Chennai Egmore) and the airport.
Among the various proposals for the land, the most ridiculous one is to build a park. While I won’t deny that parks are important, the city is home to 632 parks as of 2019. The city’s per capita green cover stands at 8.5 square metres, just short of WHO recommendation of 9 square metres. In 2019, the began an ambitious plan to set up 67 new parks, mainly due to the destruction of close to one lakh trees in 2016 due to Cyclone Vardah.
CMBT can remain a bus terminus, albeit with some redevelopment. CMRL is in the process of redeveloping Broadway as a multi-storey bus terminal. MTC has been toying with this idea for the Thyagaraya Nagar (T Nagar) bus terminus for years now. CMBT could easily be redeveloped with a bus station at the ground level, parking and commercial operations above that. Bangalore has successfully done this. The Shantinagar bus depot was converted into a bus terminus with a Big Bazar and a parking lot atop the bus station back in the early 2000s. In fact, even the Kalasipalayam bus terminus, used mostly by private buses has been redeveloped in such a fashion. With bus and metro connectivity, the land will be premium, and give the CMDA a significant return on investment that can be used elsewhere.
There is no requirement for CMBT to shut down. Broadway didn’t shut down when CMBT opened up and in fact some SETC buses for Madurai still depart from Broadway. Many cities operate with multiple bus terminals. Mumbai has five outstation bus terminals while Pune has three. Bangalore has three and its central bus station, the Kempegowda Bus Station at Majestic was briefly downsized for metro construction. In the interim, certain buses were moved to Shantinagar and Mysore Road Satellite Bus Station at Bapujinagar. Today all three operate successfully.
But perhaps the most radical of all ideas came from a friend on Twitter, Krishnan. He tweeted that the site could be used for a future High Speed Rail terminal, and I could not agree any more. Given that the first HSR line to Chennai will connect it to Bangalore, it makes sense to keep the terminal somewhere near Poonamalle High Road/Grand Western Trunk Road (GWT Road). Given CMBT’s nature as the city’s pre-eminent transport hub, it makes perfect sense to make CMBT the HSR terminal as well. It will aid in quick commutes, fast transfers between different modes of transport, and will not hurt passengers’ wallets or watches.
Update
It’s 2024 and Kilambakkam (now nammed Kalaignar Centenary Bus Terminal or KCBT) is operational. While I haven’t been there, things aren’t smooth. MTC buses bound for KCBT are taking a minimum of an hour to reach there from Velachery. One good thing is 21G (Broadway to Vandalur Zoo) has been extended to KCBT, especially the AC bus but there are no AC buses from CMBT.
Private buses have refused to ply from KCBT and CMDA and the transport department has threatened to file criminal cases against them. Some buses were even forced to run empty from CMBT to KCBT. You can read more here. Southern Railways meanwhile has begun work on a new station which will take time to complete. On this note, do read: Urban Connectivity Chaos: People Managing Metro, Railway, Bus Stations Are Working In Silos by Srikanth Ramakrishnan on Swarajya.
For Bangalore and other West-bound passengers. It seems the powers that are have decided to make things worse for us. We will have to depart from another bus terminus, this time at Kuthambakkam near Thirumazhisai. This 25-acre bus terminus is touted to be completely air-conditioned and will feature a food court. The downside? It’s worse located than KCBT. It is approximately 9km from the Poonamalle junction and 2.5km from the highway. Getting there will obviously be a mess. It will feature 136 bus bays and CMDA is in the process of identifying access roads to be built. The Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) has asked for an extension of the metro to start work. This line, connecting Poonamalle too Light House is under construction and connects with the existing network at Vadapalani.
Let us pray that the administration does not miss this opportunity.
Featured Image: Chennai Mofussil Bus Station (Seshadri Sukumar/PIB Chennai)
A while back the internet was flooded with a video of a bus with a scrolling display that read Madarchod Sukheja. However, it seems that the incident has quite a backstory to it.
According to reports, the bus is owned by Sukheja Travels, owned by one Satish Sukheja and plies on the Satna-Indore route in Madhya Pradesh. Apparently, neither the driver nor Sukheja were aware of the expletive on the bus’ display till people noticed it and alerted them to it. Accordingly, Anil Kumar Pathak, the company’s manager filed a case with the Kolgawan Police Station in Satna.
So what happened?
A while back, one employee named Salman Khan was hired by Sukheja as a bus driver. However, it soon came to light that Khan had trouble driving post evenings and wore high-powered glasses. Sukheja questioned the transport department for issuing him a licence in such a condition, his licence did not show his glasses in the photograph. Subsequently Khan was offered to drive a four-wheeler instead but that didn’t pan out and after a month of employment, he was let go off. In his complaint, Pathak stated that only Khan had the password for the LED display unit for the bus in question (MP 19 P 7782) and thus it was evident that he was the one who tampered with it.
Since then, the story has gone viral over the internet with most people (including me) laughing it off as a practical joke but once knowing what the real story was, it is a little sad. It also speaks volumes about our driving licence regimes and that something must be done to rectify it. It also talks about the dangers of leaving the bus display controls open to potential misuse as they could be used for a wide variety of purposes.
Sukheja is looking at recovering ₹55,000 from Khan for a possible malfunctioning display.
Your commute could soon become better (or even BEST, pun intended) as the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking has begun the process of calling for tenders for agencies to supply electric cabs with drivers (also known as a wet lease) for last-mile connectivity in Mumbai. According to an article written for the Times of India by Somit Sen, the agency will provide cabs on an ‘aggregator basis’ on a revenue-sharing model with the agency providing the vehicles and staff and thus keep BEST’s capital expenditure at zero. The article also mentions that the agency will provide fuel, which is kind of odd given that these are electric vehicles. The cabs will be electrified.
Users who want to book then can book them using BEST’s Chalo App, and fares will be on par with other aggregators including Ola and Uber. A user can plan a -multi-modal journey using both cabs and buses.
Although unrelated, BEST also recently procured 16 electric Tata cars for its staff to use.
An important question arises: If the private partner is providing the fuel, to be read as paying for electricity, then what about the charging? Will the undertaking open up its charging infrastructure at various depots and bus stations for these vehicles?
An interesting point to note: Fellow transit-enthusiast Kundan Srivastav had explained (in detail) a similar concept where public transport agencies such as BEST could tie-up with private partners to operate taxis under a common brand name way back in 2020 during the early stages of the lockdown. I hope he may write an article on it some day. Please do follow Kundan on Twitter, @kun_srivastav.
An even more interesting thing to note. A year ago, in August 2021, a badly photoshopped picture of a red Volkswagen Polo with BEST’s logo on it made the rounds on social media, purporting to be BEST’s new electric taxi service. BEST clarified it to be fake news. You can read more about it here: Fake News Alert: BEST Is Not Launching Electric Taxis.
In what can only be deemed a major embarrassment for the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) of Chennai, crewmembers belonging to the Chromepet Depot (CR/CW) were found to have disconnected the vehicle tracking devices and skipping interior regions in mini-bus routes. These buses, operating as “Small Bus” are generally operated as feeder services from metro, railway and bus stations to interior regions where the patronage is low.
According to a report in the Times of India, the issue came to light when residents of Chitlapakkam were unable to track the bus S100 that runs from Tambaaram to Chennai International Airport Metro Station. In May 2022, transport minister SS Sivashankar had launched the Chennai Busapp, developed in partnership with Chalo. MTC staff were reported to have disconnected the tracking devices in their bus and then skipped some regions altogether, thus leading to long waiting times. Officials of both the MTC and the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) warned the staff and even deputed officials on the buses to ensure that they did not skip any stops or routes.
This brings about an important question. What are we to do when services are being sabotaged by the staff themselves? A general warning is not good enough. There has to be serious consequences. A lack of pay or suspension without pay or even termination of employment would ideally make the best sense. At the end of the day, public transport is largely non-profitable and is funded by taxpayer money.
On another note, since MTC has brought back AC buses after a long time, maybe MTC could consider running AC mini-buses on certain routes, especially feeders for the metro.
Featured Image: MTC Small bus on Route S35 from Ashok Pillar/Ashok Nagar Metro Station to Defence Colony (Ekkattuthangal). Photo clicked in 2014 by Srikanth Ramakrishnan, available on the Wikimedia Commons.
In 2019, when BEST decided to introduce Minibuses in Mumbai, there was a lot of uproar on social media about using these small buses for public transport. The outcry got louder and louder when these tiny-tots were pressed into service on major long-distance routes in 2020 in lieu of double-decker buses that were getting scrapped.
However, some 1,351km south of Mumbai, another city has experimented with minibuses and has been more successful.
Over the weekend, I made a trip to India’s favourite tourist city in the South – Pondicherry. While the journey to Pondy is a different story, it will get an article soon. While walking along the streets, I saw what looks like a minibus that was squashed. At first, I wondered, was it a minibus? Or was it so small that one could call it a micro-bus?
PRTC Minibus near Indira Gandhi Statue (Srikanth Ramakrishnan/BESTpedia)
However, I did manage to count the seats while the bus was waiting at a signal and it could seat 20 people. It isn’t all that small.
What surprised me was that the bus carried the JnNURM logo (the logo itself is a jurm) but was in a relatively good condition. Odd, given that most of the Puducherry Road Transport Corporation’s (PRTC’s) JnNURM buses were dilapidated and like their counterpart up north (I’m talking about you, MTC), JnNURM-funded Volvos have left their fleet entirely. The PRTC used to operate Volvo B7RLE buses from Chennai to Pondy and prior to that, they even operated Volvo B7R buses.
I did some digging online and came across a 2016 article from The Hindu. These buses were procured somewhere in early 2015 when the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) was folded up and superseded by the Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Transformation (AMRUT). Fifteen buses were inducted into the PRTC fleet with 10 of them serving the city (and enclave) of Puducherry and the remaining five in Karaikal, around 130km further south. Services operated from 5am to 13.30pm and fares were fixed at ₹5.
For many a resident of the union territory, these buses have been a blessing. Auto-rickshaws in Pondy, just like Chennai are notorious for overcharging. In many cases, they can charge as much as ₹150 for distances no longer than a kilometre. Thus, a bus ticket a fraction of that cost will succeed. Many areas of the city feature narrow roads that can’t handle a regular bus. This deprived these areas of proper public transport, forcing people to walk or shell out outrageous amounts for other services. An added bonus, was that it helped a lot of women reach the city-centre for their work.
While the PRTC had a lot of plans to upgrade their network in 2014 including implementing an Intelligent Transit System (ITS), GPS tracking, electronic ticketing, upgrading their Volvo fleet and more, not much happened, probably due to the lacklusture government led by V. Narayanasamy of the Indian National Congress. We hope that N. Rangaswamy’s government works on improving public transport in the union territory soon.
The PRTC has its origins in the Puducherry Tourism and Transport Development Corportation (PTTDC) that was formed in 1992. In 2005, it was bifurcated, giving birth to the current entity. Once with a fleet strength of 141 buses, it currently operates only 65 buses across the four enclaves. It operates local services in all of them, while providing a few long distance routes connecting Puducherry with Karaikal and Mahe, along with other cities such as Chennai, Bangalore, Coimbatore and Tirupati. The sole bus connecting Puducherry to Yanam was discontinued due to low earnings. The corporation faces stiff challenges from private players as well as the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC).
Featured Image: PRTC Minibus at Rajiv Gandhi Bus Station (Srikanth Ramakrishnan/BESTpedia)
Higher resolution versions of both images used in this article are available on the Wikimedia Commons and can be attributed to Srikanth Ramakrishnan/BESTpedia.
As part of a pilot project in Millenium City Gurgaon (Gurugram), the Gurugram Metropolitan City Bus Limited (GMCBL) and ride-sharing aggregator platform Uber have entered into a partnership. Commuters will now be able to book and reserve seats for themselves in select GMCBL buses. The pilot project will allow commuters to book tickets in the corporation’s air-conditioned buses on two routes. Commuters can book seats and follow the live location of a bus on the Uber app, much like they do with cabs on the app.
According to Uber, the company hopes to incentivise the shift to shared mobility using this project and encourage public transport. Uber hopes to use the data to provide better commuting options to passengers while also help the transport body in understanding and predicting passenger demand.
All seats on the bus will be reserved and there will be no standees.
According to the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), the service, known as Gurugaman Plus, will operate on the following two routes:
Badshahpur Bus Stand to DLF Cyber Park (Shankar Chowk) via HUDA City Centre Metro Station
BPTP Astaire Garden (Sector 70) to DLF Cyber Park via Golf Course Road.
Services will be available between 7am and 12pm (noon) and 3pm to 8pm daily.
Featured Image: GMCBL’s Gurugaman Plus bus
Do enjoy your ride on the Gurugaman Plus bus, but please do take precautions.
To mark India’s 75th year of Independence, the Birhanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking arranged its buses at the Mumbai Central Depot to form the number 75, similar to its sibling the Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT). While the NMMT paraded its Ashok Leyland JanBus and JBM EcoLife fleet, BEST decided to do so with its Tata CNG fleet.
Take a look at the pictures below, as shared by BEST on Twitter.
BEST buses at Mumbai Central Depot parked to form the number 75
Here is a more expansive view of the same formation before completion.
BEST buses forming number 75 at Mumbai Central Depot
Along with this, the undertaking also lit up Parivahan Bhavan, (Transport House) at its headquarters in Colaba in the tricolour. You can see it here:
It’s 15 August 2022, India’s Independence Day. To mark the occasion, as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) undertaking did something very interesting.
Here is what they did. Images were shared by the NMMT on Twitter.
Buses at the Ghansoli Depot were parked to form the number “75”, first with just their red buses and again, by colouring the roofs of buses with the tricolour.
Check it out below.
Fisheye view of NMMT buses in special formation at Ghansoli DepotNMMT buses in the special formation with the tricolour at Ghansoli DepotNMMT buses in special formation at Ghansoli Depot
Meanwhile, the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking had its headquarters (Electric House) lit up in the tricolour. Do take a look below:
Paraivahan Bhavan (Transport House) lit up in the tricolour for Independence Day
Prime Minister Modi’s call for Har Ghar Tiranga as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav has seen a phenomenal response.
I hope you celebrated Independence Day with much fanfare, but till we are done with the pandemic, please do take precautions.
Over the course of the last two weeks, I’ve been traveling a lot in MTC buses. During my rides, I got to try out the Metropolitan Transport Corporation’s (MTC, fkaPallavan) not so new air-conditioned buses.
These silver-coloured buses are Ashok Leyland buses built by Gemini Coach Builders in Karur. Introduced in January 2020 by former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, each bus costs ₹36 lakh and has a fare between ₹15 and ₹60. The buses have been allotted to different depots, I myself have boarded them from both the Adayar and Anna Nagar depots (AD and AN respectively).
They initially ran on route 570s between MGR Koyambedu (Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus/CMBT) and Siruseri IT Park and 91 from Thiruvanmiyur to Tambaram. They were later on extended to other routes such as 102 from Broadway to Kelambakkam. These buses marked the return of AC buses after a gap of one and a half years. Prior to this, MTC used to operate Volvo B7RLE buses till July 2018 with a minimum fare of ₹28.
Now coming to the inside of the bus.
Interior of MTC’s AC bus belonging to the Adayar depot running route 570S from MGR Koyambedu to Sirucheri IT Park (Srikanth Ramakrishnan/BESTpedia)
One thing I’ve observed about new MTC buses (and their counterparts across Tamil Nadu) is the tricolour LED display. Unlike the standard display that usually has only orange as a colour, these displays have three colours. The route number on the left-hand side is in red, the destination on the upper half of the remaining space is in green and the route underneath that is shown in white. There are two different manufacturers of these displays. One is Hosur-based Argee Equipment which supplies the displays for some of the new non-AC red buses. The remaining buses and the AC buses use displays manufactured by Coimbatore-based Wintra Engineering, who sells it under the brand name Rolls Tec Digital Passenger Information System.
Unfortunately the bus doesn’t have any internal display that shows which stop is arriving or anything. Neither is there an announcement system inside the bus. You’ll have to rely on common sense or the conductor shouting out the name of the stop.
Like all MTC buses, there is a single seat perpendicular and facing the gangway near the rear door for the conductor to sit on. All passenger seats and the conductor seat are super-plush and extremely comfortable. They are manufactured by Karur-based Sastha Seating. However, due to this, the gangway is slightly narrow and leg space is quite cramped. Some buses have different seats. These are manufactured by Swadzim, Poland-based STER seats. They are either STER’s 7T1 or Dynamic 20 seats.
Like all newer MTC buses, this one is also pretty high built, requiring you to climb a few tall steps to board and disembark. Not very accessible to be fair. The interesting thing however, is that there are two sets of string LED lights affixed to the steps which light up when the door opens, making it very convenient.
The biggest blunder in the bus is the presence of four-bar vertical grab poles near each door with one in the middle of the bus. These are similar to the ones in the Alstom-built Chennai metro and narrows the gangway further, making it sometimes difficult to cross without bumping into a fellow passenger. A single row of transparent plastic grab handles is there for passengers.
There are no luggage racks, as with most intra-city buses and unlike other AC buses (Volvo, Corona, Olectra, Tata, Force Motors, et al), the A/C vents are on the roof of the bus. This makes it out of reach for most passengers making it slightly difficult to close them or open them. On the bright side, it also makes them less vulnerable to damage. The air-conditioning itself is quite powerful and good to handle Chennai’s weather. No comparisons with them Purple Faeries here. There are no charging points or USB ports in the bus either.
The most fascinating thing I saw in this bus was in the seat directly behind the front door. The window seat has a metal ring attached to the wall of the bus meant for Divyang passengers who use crutches to hold them there.
Overall the bus is pretty comfortable, although it tends to get crowded really fast. There are no passes valid for this bus, all passengers have to buy a ticket. There are no daily passes available, MTC having done away with them after the 2018 fare hike.
Featured Image: MTC’s AC bus belonging to the Adayar depot running route 570S from MGR Koyambedu to Sirucheri IT Park (Srikanth Ramakrishnan/BESTpedia, available on the Wikimedia Commons)
If you are stepping out, do note that while masks are no longer mandatory, please stay safe, better safe than sorry.
