Tamil Nadu: MTC sheds oldest fleet tag with 725 new buses added to fleet in 2 years

CHENNAI: The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) has shed the dubious tag of owning the oldest fleet in the country as 725 new buses were added to fleet in the last two years, 30 of of them on Thursday.

The 30 new red-coloured buses will ply along arterial routes such as 72C (T Nagar to Thiruverkadu), 597 (T Nagar to Thiruvallur), 27D (Villivakkam to Foreshore Estate) and 23C (Aynavaram to Besant Nagar).

Overall idea was to connect suburban areas with core city and replace all the old Tata buses, which were operated way beyond the permissible limit, at the earliest, said an MTC official. While 6 lakh km is the limit, most of these buses were operated beyond 10-11 lakh km and before the launch of new buses, MTC apparently had the oldest bus fleet compared to any other state-owned transport corporation in the country.

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday flagged off the 30 buses from the secretariat along with 540 buses for other state transport corporations, all bought for Rs.109 crore.

In 2015-16, of the 3,300 MTC buses, more than 70% were overused. Average age of fleet has come down from nine to seven years now whereas that of Bihar Road Transport Corporation stood at 12.

However, even today, only 700-odd old MTC buses have been replaced and another 2,300 need to be replaced urgently .

MTC officials pin their hope on a loan agreement signed between Tamil Nadu and KfW, German state-owned bank for buying buses and developing infra at 203 million euros.

Meanwhile, works are underway to procure another 525 e-buses under Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) in India - phase II scheme.

But none of this will ply in Chennai as they have been officially earmarked for tier-II cities including Thanjavur, Salem and Coimbatore.