Commuters say hawkers occupy a major part of the terminal, and the road to Bus Bay is full of potholes. |Photo source: Jothi Ramalingam b
“The Hawks occupy a major part of the bus stop, not the buses. The roads leading to the bus terminal and Bus Bay are filled with potholes. To make matters worse, several stores violated the bus sidewalks,” he said.
G. Maniyarasu, a regular commuter at Koyambedu, said that even if it's just drizzle, it will pour into the flood. Although its three bus bays have shelter, they are almost useless to commuters as hawkers and homeless people occupy the commuters.
Amid the daily bus and commuter rigs, the Rs 82.27 billion rebuild of the long-awaited Broadway bus terminal is on paper only. The reconstruction of the terminal is the node transport center of MTC buses, from where hundreds of buses are transported to various destinations, which are already pending.
While it is proposed to transfer the terminal to a temporary area near the Royapuram railway station, residents said it is not feasible to transfer the entire bus convoy to a temporary location, as Beach Road and Prakasam Road (two arterial roads) are MTC buses, which MTC buses have to be transferred, if moved, even heavy traffic traffic flow.
According to a senior MTC official, the bus station belongs to the Chennai company and the project will be completed when the citizen group advises them to evacuate the site.
A retired MTC official said the best option to renovate the facility without disturbing bus operations would be to transfer part of its bus service to the island’s ground and rent vacant land near the current bus terminal, belonging to the Pachaiyappas Education Trust as a temporary alternative.
The project, approved by Vada Chennai Valarchi Thittam (North Chennai Development Program) in 2024, is to transform the aging hub into a state-of-the-art multimodal facility complex – but for now, normal commuters continue to stuff it into existing facilities.
Funding for the project includes Rs 20 billion from Chennai Metro Co., Ltd., Rs 115 billion from CMDA, and Rs 506 billion from Tamil Nadu City Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation.
In addition, CMDA Minister PK Sekarbabu said in November 2024 that a multi-mode transport hub with nine-story parking facilities was planned and an eight-story dock with commercial space was planned.
Regarding the progress of the project, a CMDA official said the Greater Chennai Company (GCC) has not handed over the land yet. “The reason for this is unknown. Once the land is handed over, the work will begin,” he said.
However, a GCC official said that for this purpose, no documents related to land were received from the CMDA. “More than 200 suppliers have been transferred to new land and are expected to be relocated by December 2025,” the citizen official said in a temporary transfer of the bus terminal to three acres of land on Ibrahim Street in Royapuram Zone (V).
publishing – May 5, 2025-12:35 AM IST
