Passengers at CMBT in Chennai to be picked up by private buses
Posted on: 11/May/2019 10:40:33 AM
The latest news now is omni buses would start operating out of CMBT or Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus present at Koyambedu in Chennai. It is well known that CMDA or Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority maintains the facility and has sought permission from the transport department for the sake of operating omni buses or private buses out of CMBT.
It is worthy to mention that this move has got one major objective and that is to utilize the space created after Andhra Pradesh bound buses and long distance buses plying on ECR were shifted to Mofussil bus terminus at Nadhavaram and K.K. Nagar MTC bus terminus in 2018. The point is this move would decongest Koyambedu.
According to a senior official belonging to CMDA, transport department was approached by CMDA for the purpose because as of now only stage carriers could operate from CMBT. He explained about how the omni buses fall under the contract carriage vehicles category and how approval was needed from the transport department to operate omni buses from CMBT.
It should be taken into account that at present omni buses were operated from CCCBT or Chennai Contract Carriage Bus Terminus that is present adjacent to CMBT. Traffic at the Jawaharlal Nehru Road- Kaliamman Koil Street Junction gets choked because various operators run services from different vacant plots around CMBT. The important piece of information is CCCBT has got capacity to operate just 360 buses but about 1000 omni buses are plying from Koyambedu.
It was in the years 2002 and 2003 that CMBT and CCCBT respectively were inaugurated and the operations of state run transport corporation fleets were shifted to Koyambedu from Broadway and Moolakothalam in north Chennai. After the long distance buses were shifted to Madhavaram and K.K. Nagar, about 30 slots are free now at CMBT. It was pointed out by an official that sixth bay would be earmarked for private buses. He later spoke about his department that was yet to take a decision whether to auction the free slots or fix an amount for allowing operations of omni buses.
The point is CMBT could operate 2000 buses in a day on an average and it has got 3 bus fingers to parkas many as 180 buses at a time. It is now said that CMBT is also using the move as a test case to check problems arising out by using the same facility by both omni as well as government fleets.
