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Eight private firms to execute body-building work for MTCDate: 15.02.2007
Posted by: Anabolic Info Team India
As part of plan to speed up process of inducting more buses "New buses are expected to be rolled out from Tamil New Year"
CHENNAI : In an attempt to speed up the process of inducting more buses into its fleet, the Metropolitan Transport Corporation has outsourced the bus body-building work to eight private companies, seven in Karur and one in Kancheepuram.
A proposal to outsource the bodybuilding was put forward before the MTC Board sometime ago and the Board approved it last week.
Officials in the Corporation said that under the new arrangement, 150 buses would be given to the private body builders. The cost for building the body of each bus would come to nearly Rs. 15 lakh. The new buses would be semi-low floor deluxe ones and the MTC's body-building unit at Chromepet did not have the facility to build such types of bodies.
Moreover, it would take a longer time for the MTC to procure the required materials for building a semi-low floor body for a bus, hence the decision to outsource the body building work, the sources said. Already the buses had started moving to the body-building units in Karur and Kancheepuram and the work would be completed before the end of March. The new buses are expected to roll onto the city roads from the Tamil New Year, the sources said.
Asked about whether there was any precedence of outsourcing the body-building work, the MTC sources said that so far the body-building had been done in the Chromepet unit and the body-bulding units of other Transport Corporations in the State.
This is the first time that the work has been entrusted to private players, MTC sources said.
In order to operate the new services, the MTC has already recruited 300 drivers recently. After completion of training, they would be absorbed into the Corporation.
The authorities were also planning to recruit about 200 conductors soon, they added.
On Monday, five new routes were introduced: Route number 515 between Tambaram and Mamallapuram, Tambaram - Tiruporur; Pallavaram - Kovalam/Vadanemmeli, Medavakkam - Ambattur Industrial Estate and between Madippakkam and Ambattur Industrial Estate.
In the Tambaram-Mamallapuram route four buses would be operated, two buses each in the Tambaram-Tiruporur and Pallavaram-Kovalam/Vadanemmeli (on East Coast Road) route and one each in the Medavakkam-Ambattur Industrial Estate and Madipakkam-Ambattur Industrial Estate routes would be operated by the MTC.
A senior official said the new services were part of expansion of the MTC's coverage area up to 50 km. On whether this expansion had affected the MTC's core city services, the official said all new services were being run using newly acquired buses.
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