17 new MTC buses to connect suburbs to Chennai's transit hubs

CHENNAI: Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) has got 17 out out of the 245 new government buses that were flagged off by chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday. Routes have been designated to connect suburbs with major transit points including Koyambedu, Poonamalle, Broadway and Kelambakkam.
State-owned transport corporations in the western districts have been preferred over MTC while allocation of new buses.Nearly half of the new buses, procured at Rs 68.9 crore, will ply in and around Salem and Coimbatore. Many ministers from the ruling AIADMK hail from these parts.
These were the fourth batch of new buses to hit the state's roads in the past one year. Chennai has 73 out of the 1,786 new buses. Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) Salem and TNSTC Coimbatore have received 690 new buses.
Government sources said allocation for MTC was well below the demand. More than 70% of MTC buses are past their shelf life and have been plied beyond the permissible limit of 6 lakh kilometres. Last year, 250 buses were declared unfit for operation and auctioned as scrap.