Chennai Broadway bus terminus to be temporarily shifted to Royapuram

The Broadway MTC bus terminus, Chennai. File photo
| Photo Credit: Athullyea Padmanabhan

The MTC bus terminus at Broadway, behind the Kuralagam building, will soon be shifted temporarily to a land belonging to the Chennai Port Trust in Royapuram. The terminus had to be shifted to a site that is 1.5 km away from Broadway as a multi-modal hub is set to come up at the location at a cost of ₹822 crore.

According to official sources in the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), the bus terminus, which serves around 290 buses a day and thousands of passengers, will move to a spacious 3.46-acre piece of land. Work including the laying of roads, construction of shelters, toilets, and provision of drinking water and rest rooms, is to be undertaken on around 2 acres of land.

“The work order to construct the terminus at a cost of ₹7.1 crore was issued last week. The contractor needs a few days to mobilise men and machinery. But we need around 35 clear days without rains to complete the work as it involves laying of roads. The terminus is likely to function from this location for a period of two years since that is the time we may need to construct the hub,” the official explained.

In addition to the terminus, 288 shops will be shifted to NSC Bose Road and Evening Bazaar areas. There are 40 houses that have encroached upon government land, and the residents have agreed to move out. The government offices located at the Kuralagam building too will be shifted to another location some buildings away.

The hub is to be developed by the GCC, partly funded by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority and constructed by the Chennai Metro Rail. It is learnt that the tender process is underway for this project.