Site for integrated bus stand is unviable, claim residents

Days after chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced, during the MGR birth centenary event, the plan to establish an integrated bus stand at Kottapattu off city limits, residents and civic officials have raised serious questions on its viability. They say it is far better to keep the bus stand where it is now rather than change the facility to a landlocked location on the outskirts of the city.

Recommended By Colombia
The Trichy Portal Welfare Forum, an online community of residents, slammed the announcement as taken in haste to appease local people who have been demanding an integrated bus stand for long, but without any recent analysis and feedback. It said the decision was based on a study done way back in 2013-14. According to the residents, the 99 acres of land at Kottapattu is located behind the Trichy central prison and has been locked on all four sides. Bordering the compounds of Golden Rock railway workshop, the proposed venue is adjacent to residential localities and Trichy international airport. In short, the site has been deemed by the locals and civic body as unviable to establish a bus terminus.
Though the demand for an integrated bus stand has been made since 1994, it was only seen as a tool by political parties to garner the attention of voters. Hence, the plan to shift the bus stand was only in announcements for years. The 4.5-acre existing central bus stand with seven platforms and four dozen bays to reach any part of the state has so far not seen any expansion over the past two decades. With daily bus services numbering 3,586 and a little over during weekends and festivals, the four entries of the bus stand are often congested by traffic snarls.
Sources said that of the 283 acres of land with Trichy central prison, around 99 acres of land behind the existing prison is available for the integrated bus stand plan. Thus the land availability is vast but the approach pathway for the location is not ideal and highly inadequate to house a bus stand at the site. "When we say integrated bus stand, the facility should have at least half-a-dozen entry and exit points, but we do not have such a possibility at the proposed site. Kottappatu site is away from highways which means passengers have to commute a long way to board buses," A Aravind, member of Trichy Portal Welfare Forum, said. The proposed bus stand facility as of now could only be accessed through a narrow two-lane Ponmalaipatti road, and sources said that main access to the site could be established only by demolishing the officers' quarters on the central jail campus.
"If we are establishing an integrated bus stand at Kottapattu, we need to start from scratch as the vicinity is isolated and does not have suitable infrastructure including wide roads to sustain heavy traffic," a source in Trichy Corporation said. As only lands are identified, the corporation has a herculean task ahead such as works for land transfer from prisons department, suitable financial model to support the project and futuristic design to implement

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/trichy/site-for-integrated-bus-stand-is-unviable-claim-residents/articleshow/61312640.cms