MTCbus terminuses: Terminally ill?

CHENNAI: The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) recently expanded its fleet and services with funds from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. Although the services were expanded, basic amenities seem to have been done away with at the bus terminuses. Starting from information on bus timings, toilets to drinking water, even the most basic facilities are denied to commuters.Even the MTC staff, with their powerful unions, seem unable to get a clean toilet or a glass of drinking water. “We are used to it. The drivers and conductors always complain. They have nothing better to do,” said an official at a bus terminus.When asked about the options available to commuters, most officials pointed out the pay-and-use toilets available outside the terminuses, which are run by the Chennai Corporation. “We are the Metropolitan Transport Corporation. Not a restroom service!” barked an official, before turning his unhelpful attention to hapless commuters looking for information.With little or no information available at hand, commuters have to rely on what they already know or what friends and family members have told them. This makes it a nightmarish experience for a not-so-regular commuter at bus terminuses across the city.Information boards, which display the bus routes and timings, are in  proper shape in only a handful of bus terminuses. This leaves a majority of the commuters confused and clueless.Another problem that plagues a large number of bus terminuses across the city is water-logging during rains. Some terminuses remain covered under a shin-deep layer of filthy, stagnated water for days after a brief spell of rain. Besides, commuters also have to contend with leaking roofs at a number of places.It has been a conventional practice to accord better treatment to the southern parts of the city, purportedly the ‘better half’ of Chennai, and that has for long been applied to the bus terminuses as well. A visit around the bus terminuses across the city only re-establishes the north-south divide more clearly. Bus terminuses in the southern parts of the city have seen a rise in the number of deluxe services and high-profile routes in recent times. Whatever little benefits you may find here are utterly lacking in north Chennai, where bus terminuses are nothing but a tale of woes.Inhuman attitude towards commuters, surly staff, irritable drivers and conductors, and non-existent basic amenities - are these factors driving Chennaiites to prefer share autos  over public transport? Your guess is as good as ours.