Public rue misleading bus routes, numbers

Chennai: Though remembering bus route numbers is quite an easy way to reach your destination at a new place, the policy cannot be applied in Chennai as a same bus number might land you in three different destinations.

Public rue that while some buses with the same numbers are taking a different route when the starting point and destination remain the same, some buses even change destinations.

Residents of Besant Nagar and Thiruvanmiyur say they have been facing this problem for two years now. They said 29C goes from Perambur to Thiruvanmiyur and also from Perambur to Besant Nagar. Also, 23C goes from Ayanavaram to Besant Nagar and Ayanavaram to Thiruvanmiyur.

“People usually get into buses in a hurry by just looking at the number. Some even do not know how to read and they just rely on bus numbers. This is causing major difficulty to the public, mainly senior citizens. Numerous appeals to MTC have gone in vain,” said V. Chandra Sekhar, a resident of Besant Nagar.

There are more than 10 routes in Chennai in which this is happening and sometimes buses with same numbers even go to more than three destinations.

“Firstly, there is great confusion among the public and secondly, the places in which frequency of buses is really low, people are facing lot of issues,” said Citizen Senthil, an activist.

He further added that some buses, in the name of extension are going to different places. 37D goes from KK Nagar to Vallalar Nagar via Valluvar Kottam and Purasawalkam. 37D Extn goes from Guindy to Vallalar Nagar via Ashok Pillar, Valluvar Kottam, Purasawalkam.

“Extension means it should get extended from end of route, not middle,” he said.
K. Anbazhagan, joint secretary of Nethaji Transport Union said this  would increase clashes between conductors and the public and might lead to a bigger problem.

Also, as the public refrain from taking buses due to this confusion, collections would decrease.

When contacted, an official from MTC said, “This usually happens during the last trip when the bus has to go to its depot, so it would be diverted to that route. However, even if they are going to different places in the morning, people can ask conducters before boarding. The numbers cannot be changed.”