Maintenance costs to escalate as buses continue to ply in flooded areas

The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) has suffered extensive damage to its fleet of buses during the flooding.

Sources in the Corporation said at least 50 per cent of the buses had been damaged, but services continued nonetheless. Despite the rain, MTC operated buses through the week, even when very few roads were motorable.

“We needed to transport people. But, water entered many of our depots and water on the road also entered the vehicles, damaging gear boxes, engines and brakes,” said an MTC official.

For four days, all bus travel within the city was free for citizens, with over 1 crore passengers estimated to have used the service.

“Without the MTC, I could not have gone to my relative’s house on December 2,” Padma, a domestic help, who lives in Ashok Nagar, said.

The situation has not been easy for the crew. M. Udhayaselvam, a driver on the G70 bus from Vadapalani to Guduvancheri, said that since their depot was flooded, the staff did not even get lunch on December 1.

“Since the canteen inside the depot was shut, many of us did not have food, but worked 16 hours a day,” he said.

Wherever water was over knee deep, buses could not ply and so, many services were diverted and trips that ordinarily took an hour to complete took around three to four hours. Many buses are stuck in inundated areas.

Bus maintenance costs will also escalate with the heavy loads that the buses are taking. “Since the rides were free, more people were travelling on the buses, which were being driven over bad roads. There will be a huge demand for spare parts soon,” said officials.

MTC, officials said it is possible that there will be a loss of around Rs. 2.5 crore.