Impelled by the growing popularity of special government buses for IT staff along Old Mahabalipuram Road, industry body Nasscom has made representations to the state transport department and Metropolitan Transport Corporation to add more routes and also ply air-conditioned bus services.
For now, MTC operates 150 additional buses along three special routes between Madhya Kailash and Siruseri. The service, commissioned on May 26, already benefits 40,000 employees working along the OMR corridor that houses over 150 IT companies.
“About 1.5 lakh people travel along the stretch and hence it certainly calls to increase the number of bus services,” said a senior Nasscom official who has been canvassing to increase bus routes.
Also, with most techies forgoing their two-wheelers and four-wheelers to travel by bus, that has helped reduce traffic congestion, it makes sense to offer them some AC comfort, he added.
Karthick Kandasamy working in UST Global finds it more convenient to travel in MTC buses than in his car. “It is certainly a pleasure to be rid of that driving tension in the morning which helps me perform better at work,” he claims.
Though the buses are not exclusive for IT employees, the timings have been tailor-made for them. Mahesh Varadarajan working in TCS feels the frequency of buses is not enough.
“Though they claimed that there will be a bus every 15 minutes between 7 am and 11 am and between 5 pm and 9 pm, it certainly takes longer, and is overcrowded, especially in the mornings,” he says.
Also, the ambitious plan to fit with GPRS systems on buses linked to the office personal computers is yet to take off.
Though Nasscom complains about little response from MTC despite its repeated claims, transport planners feel that it may not be viable for corporation to add more routes. It is already under-staffed and with the government proposing to run mini buses in interior areas.