namma mejura

When share autos were introduced, it used to be a tin box with a door & squeezed with people. It moved slowly but never menacingly.

Madurai_16, originally uploaded by Photolocale.

But then auto rickshaws by Piaggio catched up, it changed the equation. It is actually a 3 seater auto but wider than the usual auto. It doubled up as ‘share‘ auto – not quite legally though.

With their bigger size, auto drivers now squeeze 8 – 10 people in this 3 seater auto with a wooden plank serving as additional row of seats. And it runs like a monster with it’s tail on fire!

Those heavy looking beast lurks and moves fast, and true to auto driving rules, the drivers try to sneak into spaces where none exist. With a high pitch diesel motor, such a rash driving monster is really a menace to pedestrians and two wheeler riders. Accidents involving these monsters were becoming regular. Seems they will replace sand laden lorries as road demons.

They make life difficult for commuters hopping into a city bus. They always squeeze between the bus and bus stop. No wonder we regularly see reader letters in newspapers clamouring for a ban of these ‘share’ autos.

This is an effort to list the colorful city buses plying / recently plied in Madurai. Dinesh and Kavi were nostalgic about the Silver painted city buses which were unique to Madurai two decades back.

Some of them like blue chequered buses were no longer available. The red bus with big yellow stripe in the middle is still around, however it is turning into blue with small white stripe during FC. Now new ordinary buses were blue with white stripes & city expresses in yellow.

City Buses, originally uploaded by Kamala L.

Low floor buses have striking colors and lines. The saffron color buses were 2 years old & the newer ones invariably comes in yellow. Thankfully the automatic doors are still working in almost all buses.

And then there are private mini-buses that were green with a small yellow band in the middle.

City buses in Madurai were a changed lot now. Even 3 months back, we can spot only a few ‘Low Floor, Deluxe’ buses on city roads. Now it easily outnumbers the ordinary ones. Most buses plying within city were these low-floor types now.

These private-built buses look sturdier than regular ones. Automatic doors, air suspension were welcome addition. But it has started showing signs of wear & neglect due to characteristic poor maintenance.

State transport corporations quickly adopted Lalu’s technique of charging more without raising basic ticket prices. Bus fare on low floor buses were 200% to 250% higher than basic fare.

The following were the ticket fares between Periyar Bus Stand & TIrumangalam (approx: 20kms):

1. Basic fare: Rs . 5.50 [red bus with big yellow band in middle]
2. LSS fare: Rs. 6.50 [blue & yellow chequered ]
3. City Exp: Rs.10.00 [green & yellow]
4. Low Floor: Rs.11.00 [saffron & yellow - visually distinct]

It seems more than 90% of buses in this route were low floor – as it serves high commuter traffic of south-bound mofusil travellers, who find it easier/time saving to visit Tirumangalam than to visit Mattu Thavani Integrated Bus Stand (MIBS).

How does it perform in cost-conscious Madurai?
Daily wage earners depend mostly on city buses. You should see the expressions in their face, when three consecutive buses to their destination were all ‘low-floors’. They even have a nickname for it – ‘kollakara bussu’ (pirate bus) !!

The green mini-buses are the lifeline of most suburbs around Madurai. Most of the newly developed areas like Gomathipuram & Yagava nagar near Anna Nagar & a plethora of ‘Nagar’s between Iyer Bungalow & Moondru maavadi have narrow 20ft. roads as main throughfare.

Worse, the roads under village panchayats were poorly paved. Most of these roads have giant craters & will become pools of red slush on rainy days. It is only these private mini-buses that brave the odds for them.

The buses suffer due to bumpy roads & dust conditions. Some of the buses had to push start by commuters themselves while a few others are well maintained. In any case, if you prefer a ride in these buses, be prepared to an assault of blaring music!

It eases the life on GST road from Palanganatham through Tiruparankundram, Tirunagar. All the intimidating roars & horns of private buses, that menacingly edge out 2-wheelers & flummox tiny 4 wheelers were missing.

Thankfully, the high-court case comes to an end. All the mofussil buses from south now takes a detour via ring road and reaches Maatu Thavani Bus Stand (MTBS).

Interestingly, some private short distance carriers terminate at Tirumangalam (20kms from Madurai) instead of going to MTBS.

The mofussil bus services to nearby towns are a world in itself. The government buses looking dull & rusty are no match for the loud & swanky private buses parked alongside in mofussil bus stands.

When TV was a crazy thing, the private buses went on to add video to their busess – free of cost. Later some of the government buses also followed the same. Now most private buses have two TVs. The loudness is something we Maduraiites seem to love always. The screeching sound of movie music mixed with engine roar & high pitch chattering of people on the buses can guarantee a nice hard headache for unexperienced. But it seldom affects us. In fact, many of us will not aboard a bus if it doesn’t have TV or music.

OKay, I was getting dragged of the title. I haven’t posted for a while & interested to compensate. Anyway, getting back to the title, now a private bus service upped the ante.

A bus service operating between Madurai & Cumbum now runs two air-conditioned buses on this route. The big surprise is – no extra charges! So for a standard bus fare, you can ride on an air-conditioned bus for about 3 hours. Now that really is something.

When the bridge next to Periyar (central) bus stand was closed for rebuilding, the vital link to Arasaradi & beyond were cut-off.

As a result, the detour from periyar bus stand to aarapalayam bus stand is a little long by city standards (about 3 kms). And there are two completely different routes from periyar to aarapalayam. Thus circular bus routes (like gandhipark-to-gandhipark route in Coimbatore) became a reality.

The bus routes are numbered C1 & C2 (unlike using routine numbers as in Coimbatore) ply from Aarapalayam to Aarapalayam in opposite directions. They soon became quite popular. One of the reason is, it crosses through the new shopping area, the wide bye-pass road. The bye-pass road which traditionally devoid of city bus traffic suddenly bestowed with a convenient mode of transport. A welcome relief is that the buses are new, distinctly coloured (to differenciate from regular buses) and neat!

Buoyed by the success, two new circular routes from maatu thavani bus stand to periyar bus stand were introduced as C3 & C4. These buses have a different colour scheme from C1-C2. It seems to be a bigger success.

These buses are curiously named as ‘Vatta Perunthu’ (circular bus or literally – ’round bus!’). Madurai does have a unique way in creating tamil words for english terms. Credit cards are mentioned in shop adverts as ‘Kadan Attaigal’ (literally – loan cards) which is perhaps more apt than positively sounding ‘credit cards’.