Residents felt the change should have been properly communicated by MTC

Commuters in south Chennai were in for a shock when they noticed Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses (MTC) with unfamiliar route numbers on Tuesday.

Kalyani Vijayaraghavan, a resident of K.K. Nagar, said that her mother waited at the Valasaravakkam bus stop for nearly 45 minutes for the 17 M bus to Anna Salai on Tuesday. Only then did she realise that she had to board the 26 bus, which is the new number for the route.

She said that MTC should have properly informed commuters about the changes to route numbers which were effected from Tuesday.

Similarly, confusion prevailed on Rajiv Gandhi Salai in the morning as commuters wondered where their regular T51 bus was. The route number plying instead was 95. Many commuters, who thought it was a new service, missed quite a few buses due to this change.

In East Tambaram bus terminus, however, the change of number was announced through the public address system. “But what about those waiting at bus stops enroute?” wondered V. Sajitha, a realtor from Sembakkam.

Some of the route numbers that gave way to new ones on Tuesday include 21H (102), T21 (102K), T51S (95C), T51 (95) and C51 (99). MTC had effected similar changes in November last year, and it took a few weeks for commuters to get used to them.

MTC officials maintained that these changes were made in accordance with the areas from where the buses originate. For example, buses from Adyar, Besant Nagar and Thiruvanmiyur were changed to start with ‘9’.

“These are some of the problems that occur whenever we introduce a new system. We have informed depots and arranged for a public address system to inform the commuters about these changes, wherever possible,” he said.

He added that stickers have been pasted on the windscreens to inform commuters about the change.