Absence of shelter irks bus passengers

Passengers who board buses from the No.1 Tollgate stop face discomfort every day.

A make-shift shelter with a thatched roof, put up by local residents, cannot accommodate more than 20 passengers waiting to board buses to Perambalur, Villupuram and Chennai. If there are more passengers, a section of them have to move to the edge of the road. With the possibility of rain during November and December, they have to face enormous discomfort. There is no other option as the spot is the only access point for Chennai-bound buses, the public say.

The cost factor is not the issue. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which has to give a no-objection certificate to construct a permanent bus shelter, returned Rs. 10 lakh sanctioned by the Mannachanallur MLA Parameswari from her constituency development fund and rejected her request, she said.

“The NHAI is not in a position to issue No-Objection Certificate to the local body to construct a shelter on the roadside. A bus shelter can be constructed only when there is a separate bay,” M. Sankara Subramanian, Project Director, Project Implementation Unit, NHAI, Tiruchi, said. “The No. 1 Tollgate Junction will turn accident-prone if a permanent shelter is permitted on the side of four-lane carriageway. Barricades were placed across the carriageway on both sides to slow down movement of vehicles and safeguard the public while crossing the road at the junction, he said.

The public have made representations at various levels seeking a permanent shelter at the location. “We had conveyed our plight to the Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan but there has been no response so far,” a local resident and a functionary of AIADMK’s Mannachanallur wing, Jeyakumar, said. Absence of a bus bay at the location reflects a serious flaw in the road design by the NHAI, Mr. Jeyakuar charged.

While accepting that the passengers indeed face discomfort, Mr. Sankara Subramanian said the mofussil buses should pass through the town to ensure safety of passengers.

Since construction of a service-lane for the purpose of creating a bus bay is not feasible on the side of the elevated road, the NHAI, at the most, can only explore scope for establishing a bus shelter at a suitable location along the service lane, he said.

Source