250 New Buses Flagged Off to Serve Routes Including Adyar

Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on Tuesday flagged off 250 new buses procured at an investment of ₹290 crore for the Metropolitan Transport Corporation and the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation, with several new services scheduled to connect neighbourhoods such as Adyar.

Out of the 250 newly launched vehicles, 130 are low-floor air-conditioned electric buses designated for city routes. These electric vehicles have been manufactured by Switch, an electric vehicle subsidiary of Ashok Leyland.

Tuesday's rollout represents the initial phase of an expansive project aimed at operating 750 new low-floor AC electric buses across seven depots at an estimated overall cost of ₹1,337 crore. The first batch of 130 buses introduced this week was procured at an expenditure of ₹234.5 crore.

In addition to the city fleet, 120 new buses were launched for the State Express Transport Corporation at a cost of ₹55.58 crore. State transport corporations are also preparing to induct a total of 1,614 new buses across the network at an estimated total cost of ₹756 crore.

The Metropolitan Transport Corporation is already running 625 low-floor electric buses procured at an outlay of ₹697 crore through five separate depots in an effort to curb vehicular emissions. The newly inducted batch of e-buses will be deployed from the Alandur and Central depots.

According to transport officials, these new low-floor AC electric buses will ply routes serving key localities and corridors, including Adyar, Guindy, Velachery, Kilambakkam, Siruseri IT Park, Siruseri, Chengalpet, and Mamallapuram.

Transport Minister A Vijay Tamilan Parthiban noted that the state government intends to transition entirely to air-conditioned models, planning to procure exclusively AC buses in future fleet expansions as directed by the chief minister.