Revival of original proposal for bus stand at Srirangam

Though the proposal to set up a bus stand at Srirangam has been kept in a cold storage for more than five years, the Tiruchi City Corporation has begun a fresh survey to figure out the volume of passengers and pilgrims traffic in Srirangam so as to revive the original proposal.

Setting up of bus stand has been a long pending demand of the residents of Srirangam. According to a senior official of the Corporation, it was mooted about 10 years ago. The demand gained strength when the late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was elected to the State Assembly from Srirangam constituency in 2011.

The Corporation subsequently unveiled a plan to build a bus stand in Srirangam in 2012-13 and earmarked Rs. 9 crore for the project. It identified a 6.6 acre site near the Yatri Nivas on Panchakarai on the banks of Coleroon river.

A Detailed Project Report (DPR) was also prepared then. But, it could not move further after the disqualification of Jayalalithaa as MLA in 2014. Since then, no action has been taken on the scheme.

However, steady increase in vehicle population and pilgrims to Srirangam, which is said to be the third biggest pilgrims destination next only to Rameswaram and Kanniyakumari, has once again revived the debate on establishing a bus stand in Srirangam.

While denying that the Corporation had shelved the bus stand project in Srirangam, a senior official told The Hindu that it had initiated a fresh survey to ascertain the latest data on arrival of passengers and pilgrims population to Srirangam. Besides the bus services operated by the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) and private operators, the study would collect details on arrival of private tourists buses to Srirangam. The study would also evaluate the traffic congestion and inconvenience to the residents and tourists due to the existing system of loading and offloading passengers in front of Rajagopuram.

He said that there were reports of traffic snarls in Srirangam due to haphazard parking of passenger vehicles and tourist vehicles in the recent past particularly on weekends, holidays and festivals.

Moreover, there was a need to provide permanent space for tourist vehicles. The survey would figure out all details and solution.

All stakeholders including TNSTC, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment, Transport Department and others would be consulted. Based on the outcome of survey, the bus stand proposal would be revived.

Source