Since its establishment, the Kalaignar Centenary Bus Terminus (KCBT) at Kilambakkam has been embroiled in various controversies, particularly concerning issues such as traffic congestion, inadequate facilities, and difficulties in accessing it from the Vandalur Railway Station. Passengers commuting from KCBT expressed their discontent with the ruling DMK government. They argued that the bus stand operates a limited number of buses, necessitating extended waiting times. Protesters alleged that they have been threatened by the police when expressing their dissatisfaction.
The situation is escalating as each day passes, with women, children, and elderly individuals resorting to makeshift sleeping arrangements on chairs and platforms after 10PM. The scarcity of buses on Fridays exacerbates the issue, especially for hardworking individuals who spend the entire week away from their families, dedicating themselves to work in the city. With Saturdays and Sundays being their only opportunity to reunite with their families, leaving people stranded and inconvenienced in their attempts to travel to their hometowns.
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A commuter, interviewed by Polimer News TV channel, conveyed his sorrow regarding the current state, “My name is Mahendran, I came from Perambalur district to Chennai for a guest house, and in order to go back, I reached the Kilambakkam bus stand at about 10 clock. Now the time is 3:15 AM by now twenty-five buses would have gone to Trichy but the population here would be around five thousand people.” he said. “The police came and threatened us saying run to catch the bus, if you can climb it, then they dropped a police car and left. There is no bus above 3:15 AM and I am still standing here talking. But if they hold a conference, they will run 4000 buses, but the people here… This is not today’s problem; it has been in the three months since DMK started. But till now it is not known what action has been taken. But they say we will introduce bus… Even now they say we have introduced three hundred buses but honestly I don’t know where those buses are running, even in an illiterate country everything is good, but here we all have studied and wander around, not even a bus facility and that too in such a big bus station that runs for twenty-four hours has this situation.” he added
“Today from this bus station 40,000 people have gone to their towns. I don’t know how long this situation will last, but if this situation improves, it will be a little better. But if you have to work like this and protect your family, worse than this, you can leave this country, like Kamal said.” he further said
When asked about the buses at the bus station carrying people, he replied, “All the buses are full as they come here, we don’t know where they get on, where they stop, they don’t wait properly, there is no place for people or bus, for this why a new bus station. It looks like a ten-year-old bus stand. The system itself is wrong, the bus entry point is wrong and the place that brings us here from Koyambedu is also wrong. All of us are men we have no problem but mainly how do women cope with keeping the baby in the platform from 10 PM to 3 AM? People who don’t care at all are sitting here as Ministers and if asked they just say that we will do this and that . But I don’t know what they did for these three months.”
When asked about the Transport department officials, he replied, “The transport department officials are telling us that, we don’t know anything, we are giving you buses, only if the bus comes we know, there is an accident on the way. they don’t have any information about what time the bus will come and how many buses will come, they also say if possible, get on the bus or simply sit, take care of yourself, you do your work and I will do mine, I have a salary, do you have a salary, don’t talk and run away.”
When the reporters asked about the reason for such a large crowd to come here suddenly, he replied, “Sir, today is Friday, and everyone will go on Saturday, and Sunday stay for two days, and come back on Monday. This will be the situation if you are expanding the business in only one place and not expanding business from town to town. Why did you start such a big bus station in Kilambakkam? So that people will come, then where are the buses for that? The irony is that in the name of decongesting Koyambedu bus stand crowd, you built a big bus stand here, so even if the population is big here it looks small, the bus station looks big, but there is no bus. But what you say the general crowd here compared to Koyambedu becomes low. Now we are fools.”
“Normally if one works in Vadapalani, it takes only half an hour to reach Koyambedu, if we go there and catch the Trichy bus, we will reach the town in almost six hours. But today we have started something called Kilambakkam which is a better bus station than Koyambedu, normally ten thousand people will come and get down in one hundred buses in Koyambedu but today those ten thousand people are pushed here in ten buses, it takes an hour to get here. If you come here after one o’clock, there are no buses till 3:15 AM, when will we reach our town?. If this is the case, we will vote differently, sure will vote differently.” he added.
Frustration among commuters reached a boiling point as buses failed to arrive on time, prompting them to protest and question the reliability of the bus service. One commuter expressed his discontent, stating that he had arrived at Kilambakkam at 7 PM in the evening, but even at 2AM not a single bus had appeared. He emphasized that he needed any of the buses to Chidambaram, Thanjavur, or Kumbakonam.
The commuter recounted that they had been told at 7PM in Koyambedu that buses would go to Kilambakkam, and they had accepted it immediately. However, he questioned the lack of buses, emphasizing the need for proper bus facilities. He highlighted the cooperation extended when asked to go to Kilambakkam instead of Koyambedu but expressed frustration at the absence of buses. The commuter raised concerns about the ongoing adjustments and questioned the sustainability of such arrangements.
Passengers were seen getting into buses through the windows enraged by the lack of them, thereby hijacking the buses as the seats were already booked in the buses coming to the bus station.
As the chaos intensified and commuters grew increasingly frustrated, they blocked the GST road in protest, despite facing threats from the police. The enraged crowd simply demanded transport buses, emphasizing that they had no intention to protest without cause.
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