World Bank report lauds MTC for creating a sustainable and dependent public transport service

The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) has won appreciation from World Bank for making a turnaround in operation and service delivery to people who depend heavily on public transport for their travel needs in the city.

The report “Chennai’s Urban Mobility Transformation”, edited by Gerald Ollivier and Shyam Srinivasan, highlights the Chennai City Partnership (CCP) signed between the Tamil Nadu government and World Bank for creating a sustainable transport model by mirroring the public bus service getting reinvigorated through MTC.

The CCP aims to bring the bus network to financial sustainability, backed by better performance and improvements in efficiency, supported by predictable viability gap funding from the State government. The report points out that through this plan, MTC would be able to unlock a higher level of passenger service by changing the service mix, improving fleet utilisation to 87%, and fostering seamless integration with other modes of public transport. For fleet augmentation, MTC will introduce alternative business models such as deploying 1,000 electric buses on a GCC basis under the CCP.

The report also points out that MTC, by going for the GCC model, would be able to streamline operations and focus on service planning and delivery management, instead of owning and operating the e-buses. Simultaneously, MTC would be able to renew the fleet under in-house operations and leverage support from various other sources. 

The report concludes by highlighting that the CCP model could help transform the bus services to match global standards by developing the necessary building blocks adopted by MTC.

T. Prabhushankar, Managing Director of the MTC, said that the appreciation by World Bank is an added testimony to the changes the organisation has effected. MTC also got the national award for being the “City with the best public transport system” in the Urban Mobility India conference held in Haryana in November last year. In the past year, MTC has taken big strides on various fronts, including bus augmentation, depot modernisation, the introduction of an intelligent transport system to automatically locate the buses, the launch of electronic ticketing machines, and the integration of the ticketing systems of various public transports through the “Chennai One” app of Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA). 

The MTC has been augmenting the fleet of ordinary and deluxe buses with new low-floor diesel buses, air-conditioned buses and electric buses. Following the success of the gross cost contract (GCC) system of operating e-buses, where 1,000 electric buses are to be inducted through a private contractor, the MTC is planning to induct 3,000 mini buses as part of a last-mile connectivity project, and also bring back the iconic double-decker buses in the electric format shortly by purchasing 20 e-buses, he added. 

At present, MTC, which has phased out hundreds of old buses, has a fleet strength of 3,833 comprising low-floor diesel, air-conditioned, electric and small buses. Almost half of the bus fleet, excluding the electric and small buses, has Bharat Stage VI emission norm compliant engines.

M. Sridhar, a resident of Ennore, said that though the MTC has improved the bus services on several routes, the need of the hour is last-mile connectivity, where commuters of suburban train and metro services are still dependent on crowded private share autos.