In a move that would bring joy to hundreds of employees of the state transport corporations, chief minister J. Jayalalithaa announced free health check-up for public transport bus drivers above 45 years of age.

Making the announcement in the Assembly, the chief minister said, “Drivers who are 45 years of age and above can henceforth avail of master health check-up annually at the Perundurai medical college run by the institute of road transport.”

This announcement would bring cheer to around 25,000 drivers across the state who come in the 45-years-and-above category.

Presently, 1.25 lakh employees are in the payrolls of transport corporations.
Happy employees said the move would help drivers stay healthy, which would also prevent accidents and safeguard passengers.

“It is a welcome move. The chief minister should also extend this scheme to conductors and family members of the transport corporations,” said Mr A.P. Anbazhagan, general secretary, Tamil Nadu transport employees’ federation.

The announcement has come at a time when the crew have been grumbling about increased stress and work burden.

“Life has become tougher these days not only for MTC drivers but for drivers of other transport corporations as well,” said an MTC driver.

Over 16,000 transport vacancies to be filled

In order to handle the increasing number of new routes and augmentation of new buses, chief minister Jayalalithaa announced 16,661 posts in transport department would be filled soon.

“It has been decided to fill 16,661 posts after taking into consideration the number of vacancies that would arise after the retirement of employees in 2013.

As per this, 6,910 drivers, 7,402 conductors and 2349 technical staff would be employed,” she said. However, of the total 16,661 posts, 9,157 posts would be filled after regularising the services of employees working as reserve staff.

Peripheral Road gets green signal

Chief minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday announced a slew of road infrastructure development projects, including a 162 km-long Chennai Peripheral Road connecting Mahabalipuram and Ennore Port at an estimated cost of Rs 1,420 crore.

Making a suo motu in the Assembly, she said that a detailed project report would be prepared for the Chennai Peripheral Road.

“The proposed road will link Mamallapuram and Ennore via Singaperumal Koil, Sriperumbudur, Tiruvallur,Thamaraipakkam, Periyapalayam and Puduvayal. Under the project, new roads to the stretch of 83.20 km will be laid while 78.60 km of roads will be upgraded,” she said.

The chief minister said to prevent traffic congestion in the cities, the project reports would be prepared for laying bypass road wherever state highways passes through the municipalities.

“The work will be initiated to prepare DPRs, as a preliminary step, to build ring and radial roads in the cities including Madurai, Coimbatore, Tiruchirapali, Salem and Tirupur.”

Ms Jayalalithaa added that the government would set up a road grid whenever an existing road network is upgraded or a new road is laid, so that the area around it could also be developed. “It will be implemented in the Chennai Outer Ring Road project on pilot basis,” she said.

She also allocated `81 crore for four-lane bridge connecting Tiruchirappalli and her constituency Srirangam besides some road works and another Rs 12.50 crore for bridge work for Karur district.

She said that through these measures, the traffic congestion in cities and towns would be brought down and travelling time would be reduced.