To decongest Koyambedu, CMBT is now planning to shift long distance buses to another place
Posted on: 14/Aug/2018 9:23:50 AM
Koyambedu in Chennai city is highly congested is well known to us. To decongest Koyambedu, CMBT could be confined to city operations. It is now said that CMDA or Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority is planning to shift long distance operation of buses to three terminals located on the city outskirts. Amount in crores has been invested to integrate metro rail and buses originating from the Chennai city. This amount could be wasted if this proposal sails through.
Linking three modes of transport bus, air and rail is carried on by the metro rail station inside the CMBT. People landing at the airport and arriving at the Chennai Central railway station to take onward buses to the districts in TN is aided by metro rail station inside CMBT.
CMBT in Chennai has been making its presence felt since the year 2002. From this CMBT in Koyambedu as many as 2000 mofussil buses operate every day and on the weekends 2500 buses operate. Every day 1.5lakh passengers access this CMBT and this goes to 2 lakh during the week ends. As many as 30000 people access omnibus terminus every day.
At Madhavaram, an intercity terminus would be inaugurated soon for those buses bound to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. A similar facility would be established at Kilambakkam on the GST road and this terminal is for the buses going to southern districts in TN. For fleets proceeding to places like Bengaluru, Vellore and Dharmapuri via Sriperumbudur, CMDA is on the lookout for the land. It is important to mention that CMDA has been accused of poor planning as Koyambedu emerged as a major transit hub in Chennai city after metro rail services at CMBT were commissioned. Soon there would be another station at Koyambedu for the second phase of metro rail.
Mr. A. Balasubramani, founder president of the Association of Builders for Chennai Development spoke about how CMDA did not have long term plans. He then highlighted the importance of mofussil services at Koyambedu and spoke about how nobody would come to board MTC buses at Koyambedu. He later added that Madhavaram is highly congested now and new intercity bus terminus that would be opened for the public would only increase the congestion in Madhavaram. This Madhavaram does not have any rail link and the metro rail proposal would take many years to get commissioned. Investments on such projects would be waste. This was also confirmed by Mr. Balasubramani.
Mr. K. P. Subramanian, who is a retired professor of urban engineering at Anna University, expressed his views and said the government was moving in the right direct direction. He spoke about how CMBT should have decentralised directional bus terminal instead of having a centralised facility in Koyambedu.
According to an official, adjoining Koyambedu Wholesale Market Complex would be limited to retail traders. The wholesale traders would be asked to shift to the suburbs. The lives of 7 lakh people would be hit because these people depend on the wholesale market here. This was confirmed by the traders. Mr. V. R. Soundarrajan, Koyambedu All Vegetable Market Association Advisor, spoke about how 40 % of traders in vegetable business are retail traders and how shifting of wholesale traders out of Koyambedu would affect the vegetable trade in Chennai city. He finally added that 64 markets in Chennai city depend on them.
