5 months on, MTC patronage yet to touch pre-Covid levels

5 months on, MTC patronage yet to touch pre-Covid levels

Reopening Of Schools Pushes Footfalls To 18L A Day; Corporation Has Not Deployed Full Fleet

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

21.01.2021

The Metropolitan Transport Corporation resumed bus services in Chennai five months ago, but daily passenger footfalls crossed the 20-lakh mark only on Tuesday.

While this can be largely attributed to post Pongal crowd and reopening of schools for Classes 10 and 12, average daily patronage for MTC buses remains at 17 lakh-18 lakh, almost half of pre-lockdown levels.

With many offices yet to reopen, ticket sales on key stretches like Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) — where the number of services dropped from 450 a day to 250 a day — and Mount-Poonamallee Road were much lower than normal, said an MTC official.

With local trains too resuming operations, demand for MTC buses along GST Road, Avadi High Road and Marina Beach Road too dropped. As a result, MTC has diverted some buses to suburban areas like Walajabad (579A), Thiruvallur (572) and parts of north Chennai.

Patronage for small buses too has dipped, forcing MTC to operate just 110-120 of the 200 buses. Operated along interior roads to boost last mile connectivity, these buses are causing heavy losses to a corporation already under a financial crisis.

Official data shows that MTC, on average, spends ₹40 per kilometre to operate a small bus, but is not able to get even half of this back through ticket sales. Passengers on the other hand say that only if the timings are regular can MTC gain their trust and more of them will start using the services.

Share auto drivers have taken advantage of the prevailing situation and increased their rates from ₹5-₹10 per head in areas where MTC has reduced services. T Sadagopan, a transportation activist from Avadi, says there is so much anger when MTC increases fares by ₹2-₹4, but there is literally nothing when it comes to share autos. “Why doesn’t the government take any initiative to regularise this mode of public transport,” he wonders.

The cab industry appears happy. Drivers in Chennai say there was a 25% increase in bookings last week. Apart from the fact that it was a festival weekend, there were two ‘muhurtham days’ (considered auspicious for weddings) last week, increasing their daily income to ₹3,500.

Excluding those days, the average daily booking increased from mere two or three last month to 10-12 now. “A majority of these bookings are in core city areas like Anna Nagar, Adyar, Royapuram and railway stations. More importantly, 100-odd business trips happen from Airport to industries in suburbs every day. This has boosted the morale of drivers,” said T Ramanujam of the Tamil Nadu Call Taxi Drivers Association.

CAB DRIVERS SAID THEY HAVE SEEN A 25% INCREASE IN BOOKINGS IN THE PAST WEEK DUE TO THE FESTIVAL AND WEDDING SEASON