Chennai’s Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) will soon introduce new buses

that enable persons with disabilities to travel comfortably. The buses will be designed in
such a manner as to accommodate persons with disabilities along with their
wheelchairs, according to reports.

The announcement was made at the three-day meeting held by Transport Secretary J
Radhakrishnan along with the state transport corporations (STC) in Tamil Nadu. The
buses to be introduced will have foldable ramps which help persons with disabilities to
board and deboard the bus without the help of another person.

The move comes after the Madras High Court constantly pulled up the transport
corporations for not taking sufficient steps to make public buses disabled-friendly. The
MTC had also readied a working model of the modification, which was done in a new
red-coloured bus by a private firm.

Advertisement
Advertisement

In the meeting, the TNSTC officials were directed to draft an action plan to execute the
announcements related to transport department made by the chief minister under Rule
110 in the state assembly. There were also discussions about increasing revenue to the
transport corporations, reducing expenses, scrapping of old buses etc. The meeting also
saw discussions to modernise 16 out of the 32 MTC bus depots under the Smart City
Mission.

The state transport department has purchased 3,881 new buses so far at an outlay of Rs
1,160 crore. J Radhakrishnan directed the TNSTC employees to maintain it well so that
more revenue can be generated from them. He also thanked the government for
sanctioning Rs 1,912 crore in the supplementary budget to settle the pending retirement
benefits to employees.

Meanwhile, the officials from the state transport corporations presented working plans
to introduce electric buses in Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai soon. According
to news reports, the work of installing recharge points for such buses in the three cities
has been completed.