Recently, we visited the metropolitan city, Chennai. We were totally enamored by its wide roads, orderly traffic, cleanliness and efficient public transport system. There are very few private travel operators as the Corporation’s buses run regularly and at great frequency, within the city’s limits and also to its mofussil areas.
Since our
guest-house was located right near the Parry’s bus depot, it was very
convenient for us to go to Koyambedu for the CMBT (Chennai Mofussil Bus
Terminus) for our sight-seeing trips around Chennai. This 45 minutes’ ride was
itself thoroughly enjoyable, as we passed by heritage structures like the
Chennai railway Station, Ripon building, etc. The ride over the heritage
Harris bridge and with a view of a small island with a huge tree on it
in-between a placid lake, was out of this world!
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| Ripon Building Headquarters of Greater Chennai Corporation |
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| Chennai Central Railway Station |
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| Madras High Court |
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| Madras High Court |
Then we
rode over spiraling flyovers deftly constructed for the smooth one-way movement
of traffic. We felt as if we were on a roller-coaster ride! The absence of unruly
riders, traffic snarls and jams made it a dream ride. We noticed that unlike
Pune, there were very few two-wheeler riders in Chennai; thanks to its superb
public transport machinery.
The CMBT
stand was just too good to be true! An ISO certified Bus Terminus is possible,
I realized, only when I saw this certified Depot. The vast, clean and swanky
waiting area, with authorized stalls, restaurant, seats, fans, clean toilets
and drinking water facilities overwhelmed us. There was a pre-paid auto booth
at its entrance and police on duty to handle any enquiries. Stalls sold the
subsidized mineral water branded under the former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s
name as Amma mineral water, for just Rs. 10/- .
When we
entered the Terminus, we saw a counter manned by Health Personnel who attended
to needs of the passengers who could need medical aid. This service and
medicines were provided free of cost. A security officer was monitoring a dozen
monitors of CCTVs, in a booth. Lady police constables constantly shooed away
the beggars and vagabonds out of the premises.
A huge,
decorated kiosk with a life-size cut-out of the former Chief Minister’s photo
beamed at us. It displayed the photos and video of her implementing various
welfare schemes for the needy people of Tamil-Nadu, such as providing things,
cows, etc.
A Tamil
Nadu Tourism Development Corporation’s (TTDC) Office was situated behind the
kiosk from where we obtained pamphlets regarding the sight-seeing tours
conducted by TTDC and also the tariff rates of various TTDC hotels.
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| TTDC's Office |
To be continued....
The abridged version of this travelogue was published in the Sakal Times newspaper published in Pune, in 2015.
The copyright of this travelogue and snaps is with Mrs. Priya Ramesh Swaminathan.
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