Recently, a little past midnight, a bus shelter vanished into thin air. The next morning, commuters using the facility regularly were shocked to see this bus shelter at Mahatma Gandhi Road “missing”.
“And, none of us knows to this day why the bus shelter at Sastri Nagar had to be removed,” says D. Bala, a commuter and a resident of Sastri Nagar.
This bus shelter was under the maintenance of Zone 13 of Greater Chennai Corporation. Residents who use public transport want the Corporation to restore the bus shelter at Sastri Nagar as well as ensure that all buses halt at the stop.
The bus stop sans the shelter is located near mobile phone stores and still enjoys great patronage.
At present, only route number 6 (Thiruvanmiyur - Broadway) halt at the stop. Other white board route numbers like 29C (Besant Nagar - Perambur), 5E (Besant Nagar - Vadapalani) and 47 (Besant Nagar - Villivakkam) don’t halt there anymore.
Those residing at Reserve Bank Colony, Sivagamipuram, Marundeeshwarar Nagar, Malaviya Avenue and Radha Krishnan Main Road found it convenient to board buses from the Sastri Nagar stop. Not anymore. Now, they head to the Adyar depot or Vannanthurai bus stop.
A few residents have taken up the issue with the local authorities.
“The bus shelter was demolished overnight. Even the debris was cleared overnight. I took up the issue with the Area Manager (Adyar), Metropolitan Transport Corporation, and he is not aware of the issue,” said M. Shobha, a resident of Sastri Nagar.