After complaints go unheard, MTC crew resorts to ‘umbrella’ protest

CHENNAI: On Saturday morning, passengers, who boarded a Metropolitan

Transport Corporation

(

MTC

) bus at Central Railway Station headed towards Thiruvanmiyur, were taken by surprise as the driver and conductor were holding umbrellas inside the bus to keep themselves and their bags from getting wet on a rainy day.



Janaki Raman,

bus driver

, and Samsudeen, bus conductor, told passengers that they had repeatedly filed complaints with the bus depot authorities to fix the bus’s leaky roofs as the monsoon was approaching.

The crew continued to operate along the scheduled route number A1 holding on to their umbrellas as a sign of protest and to gain the attention of their higher authorities.

MV Ramamoorthy, from Nethaji Transport Workers Union, filed a complaint about the issue with the managing director of MTC and said this was not an isolated incident and several buses operated by the state-owned transport corporation across the city were poorly maintained.

Passengers also experienced difficulties during their travel as rainwater leaked through the bus’s window panes, roofs and seeped on to the floor.

In several buses, seats adjacent to the windows remained empty due to rainwater leakage. "Water seeps through even when the windows are kept close," said J Manickam, a commuter, at Alandur bus stop. Besides window seats, those standing underneath the ventilator fixed to the bus’ roofs also get drenched during rain. "Some ventilators get stuck and do not work during rainy seasons," said an MTC driver from Basin Bridge depot, requesting anonymity.

Despite over 30lakh people — nearly one-third of Chennai's population — using the

services

on a daily basis, maintenance work continues to be shoddy for years, say regular users. Data says, Rs 3,500 to Rs 4,000 is spent daily for maintenance of an MTC bus.

Responding to this, MTC officials said that the complaint pertaining to A1 bus route was addressed the same evening and grievances from passengers were also addressed every now and then.

"Most of the buses are old and once the new buses are added to the ageing fleet, such complaints will reduce," the official added.

There is, however, no clarity on when these new buses would hit Chennai's roads. M R Vijayabaskar, state transport minister, on October 1, said new buses would be launched in a week's time.