The Madras High Court on Wednesday wanted the State Transport Commissioner to spell out by Thursday as to whether the private buses that ply between Chennai and the southern districts in the State can be permitted to operate from the Central Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT) at Koyambedu too, apart from the newly constructed terminus at Kilambakkam near Vandalur, for a few more weeks.
Justice R.N. Manjula accepted a request made by Advocate General P.S. Raman to grant him a day’s time to get instructions from the Transport Commissioner. The judge was of the view that the Transport Commissioner’s January 24 order directing all south bound private buses to be operated only from Kilambakkam could be kept under suspension for a few weeks to ensure a smooth transition.
Earlier, Senior Counsel Vijay Narayan, representing two writ petitioners YBM Travels and Vetri Travels, insisted that the private bus operators wanting to board and de-board passengers at Koyambedu CMBT must be allowed to do so until the disposal of the writ petitions which had challenged the restriction imposed by the Transport Commissioner against entry of private buses into city limits beyond Kilambakkam.
Mr. Narayan brought it to the notice of the judge that the Transport Commissioner had initially not issued any reason for imposing such a restriction. However, a couple of days later, reasons such as air pollution caused by the buses, traffic congestion in the city and the need to develop the outskirts of Chennai city were given for preventing the south bound private contract carriages from entering Chennai city.
Pointing out that the new restriction was against the two-decade old practice of boarding and de-boarding passengers bound to all districts of Tamil Nadu from the CMBT, the Senior Counsel said, a similar prohibition on entry into city limits was imposed by the Transport Commissioner as well as the Chennai Commissioner of Police when the Koyambedu terminus was constructed in 2002.
However, on December 30, 2003, the first Division Bench of the Madras High Court led by its then Chief Justice ruled against the prohibition. Though the State took the matter on appeal to the Supreme Court, the latter dismissed the appeal on August 30, 2012. Therefore, the same restriction could not be imposed once again now after the construction of the Kilambakkam bus terminus, Mr. Narayan contended.
Further, highlighting several inconveniences that the bus operators as well as the passengers were being put to at the Kilambakkam bus terminus, he said, passengers between Chennai and Madurai had to spend somewhere between ₹800 to ₹850 per ticket in the private buses but the expenditure for travelling from Kilambakkam to their residences in Chennai city in a cab costs them around ₹1,200.
He said, Kilambakkam had no proper connectivity facilities such as a metro and that there were also not sufficient bays for parking the private buses. Stating that many private bus operators had All India permits and some had State permits, he contended that the contract carriages holding such permits could not be prevented from entering into the Chennai city limits.
On the other hand, the A-G said, the High Court had in 2022 upheld the power of the government to impose such restrictions but only stated that it should not be used arbitrarily. He also said, the government had now begun operating city buses at an interval of five to 10 minutes at a nominal cost of ₹17 to ₹35 from Koyambedu to Kilambakkam and hence there would be no inconvenience to the passengers.
At this point, Justice Manjula intervened to say: “So, instead of travelling in one bus from Koyambedu to Madurai. Now, people have to travel in two buses, first in a city bus from Koyambedu to Kilambakkam and then in the omni bus.” She felt that the restriction imposed by the Transport Commissioner could be suspended until the present cases were disposed of after filing of a counter affidavit.
