New buses for the State to be inaugurated by CM Ms J Jayalalithaa today

This morning at Marina on the Beach Road proved to be different.  Sure those of us born and bought up do not know many places in interior Tamilnadu.  Do you know the route between Devakottai to Tirupur [DEvakottai, Karaikudi,Pudukkottai, Tiruchi, Karur, Kangeyam, Tirupur] or that a bus would ply in the route of …………. Kiranur, Lakshmananpatti, Suriyoor, Gunfactory, Navalpattu, Thiruvarambur………. 

The Transport system in the State is one amongst the well organized ones – still, there are places which are not served well by buses.  Unlike other States, the long distance i.e., buses from District to District are run by State Govt (barring a few private transport players) and populace of the State is very much dependent on these buses. 

In Dec 2011, there was a news item on the announcement of Chief Minister Ms J Jayalalithaa  that the State government has decided to buy 3,000 new buses at a cost of Rs 434.75 crore, to replace the old ones.  The official release stated that  520 buses will be purchased in the first phase and Rs 75.36 crore has been allotted to State-owned transport corporations for the purpose.   The communiqué stated that based  on the Chief Minister's order, buses which are either six-year-old or which had covered a distance of seven lakh kilometer were to be replaced with the new ones.

Finance Minister of Tamil Nadu, Mr. O Panneerselvam, during the presentation of Budget 2012-13  announced that the Government has envisaged the purchase of 3,000 new buses at an estimated cost of Rs 548 crore.  The Tamil Nadu Lorry Owners Federation welcomed the announcement of the setting up of 13 training schools for heavy vehicle drivers in 13 districts at a cost of `13 crore.

Today at Morning walkers at Marina were wondering the sight of new buses lined up throughout the entire stretch from Gandhi Statue to Labour statue.  It was an impressive parade of new vehicles of various depots like Kumbakonam, Salem lined up one after the other and people stood to read the name boards and the name of places the buses would stop.  It really was an interesting and encouraging sight.

Understand that Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa would inaugurate the new buses at a Function to be held near Metro Transport Corporation at Pallavan Salai today.

Good news for the people of Tamil Nadu indeed.

…………. And now brace up for something that would affect you badly - domestic consumers are among those whose electricity tariff will go up steeply from April.  The hike in the tariff ranges between 75 per cent and 110 per cent and there is not much change in the tariff revision, ordered by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC), compared to the proposal mooted by the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO).  According to the order issued by the TNERC on Friday, subsidy to domestic consumers who consume 501 units and above in two months, has been removed totally.  However, subsidy for the other categories of domestic consumers has been retained.

In total, a four-tier slab system for domestic consumers would replace the five-tier slab system.  So this summer, with heavy power cuts, if you think you are consuming less power, still your electricity bill would go up

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.