Mini buses in Chennai are unlikely to ply on all the routes suggested by the Anna University as the transport department has decided to put on hold the recommendations made by varsity experts.
Instead, the transport department is conducting a detailed study to identify the routes that need te service and also the ones that would be profitable for the cash-starved corporation.
“It is not necessary that we should follow the recommendations made by them and we have now decided to conduct a detailed study involving transport officials for identifying the routes for operating mini buses in the city.
The bus routes would be finalised solely on the basis of the study conducted by our officials,” highly placed sources in the government told Deccan Chronicle on Tuesday.
They, however, added that the study conducted by Anna varsity would not be completely overlooked.
“We would also try to incorporate a few routes suggested by varsity experts after discussing with branch managers and other officials,” they said.
“While operating mini buses we should also keep in mind the revenue aspect of the route,” an official pointed out.
“It is not clear as to whether they had looked into MTC’s perspective with regard to revenue as our officials only know the commercial viability of the routes.
We respect the experts suggestions though,” an official said and added that the route improvisation studies conducted annually by MTC would also be taken into consideration.
On Tuesday, transport minister Senthil Balaji had announced that 100 mini buses would be introduced by MTC much to the surprise of Chennaiites as the scheme was actually mooted by the previous DMK regime. When asked about this, a senior official said there was nothing wrong in implementing a scheme that would be useful for the public.