Chennai: “Sorry Koyambedu” and “Bye Bye Koyambedu” were slogans seen on Chennai roads on Sunday. Posters with these taglines and the Koyambedu bus terminus in the background were put up in every nook and corner of the city.
However, what looks like a “teaser” campaign by the government for shifting the stop of South-bound omni buses from Koyambedu to Vandalur has not been done by the government.
Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) officials have cleared the air that this is not the job of government and allege that the people behind it are misleading the public.
“Most of the people now have a misconception that Koyambedu bus terminus will be shut down after the terminus at Vandalur opens. In reality, only South bound buses would be shifted to Vandalur in order to ease the traffic congestion on GST Road”, said a CMDA official.
The official went on to say that the advertisements put up at intervals of 200m bidding goodbye to Koyambedu are misleading the public. “Preliminary investigations revealed that the posters are put up by realtors, to invite the public to buy homes near Vandalur. However, orders have been sent out for a secondary investigation to find out the exact purpose.”
According to sources, 88 acres have been acquired near Vandalur-Kelambakkam road to build the bus terminus with world-class facilities. A few of them said another reason for the posters could be to mislead the public as many “officials” from other departments were against the move.
Regarding the advancement of the vandalur project, officials are busy clearing glitches in land acquisition and a 16-member committee has been set up to review and approve the proposal.
Sources said that towards building a bus terminus with better connectivity, they would work on providing walkways and shuttle services to the nearest suburban railway station. The Koyambedu bus terminus will continue to function and the only difference would be diversion of south-bound buses to Vandalur.
