Whats happening regarding low floor buses procurement in TN?
Posted on: 21/Jan/2023 9:48:28 AM
Buses with low floors would be superb for the differently abled people. The Chennai residents want buses with low floors for the sake of differently abled people travelling in the buses.
On Friday, Institute of Road Transport or IRT has informed the High Court of Madras that operating 100% differently able friendly low floor buses would be impossible. The reason for that was due to lack of proper infrastructure including appropriate roads.
It is noteworthy that Institute of Road Transport has made the submission in response to the public interest writ petition to restrain the government of Thn from procuring non low floor buses that would not suit those with physical issues. The IRT was directed by the first bench of acting Chief Justice T. Raja and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy and the judges want IRT to ascertain as to whether the rear entry in ordinary buses could be altered to provide proper access to the differently able persons.
The report from IRT brought to light that procuring 100% buses with low floors would not be possible now as infrastructure upgradation would be needed at the bus stops, bus bays, access to bus stops etc. According to IRT from 2009 to 2018 MTC operated 100 low floor buses in Chennai and 30 low floor buses were operated by TNSTC Villupuram.
The report that was filed by IRT highlighted that they were unable to operate the low floor buses on all the routes due to several factors like insufficient road width for turning, non standard speed breakers and water stagnation etc.
It is learnt that IRT has received feedback from 7 TNSTC regarding the operational issues in the procurement of all the buses as low floor buses. Information is that the length of low floor buses is 12m but the length of standard floor ordinary buses is 11m.
The engine has been fitted on the rear side in all the available low floor buses that are available in the market. This is to make sure that atleast 50% of the bus is of 400m floor height and also to provide ramp for wheelchair access.
