Construction work on Integrated Bus Terminal in Tiruchi begins

The bus terminal will come up on 40.60 acres of land and is expected to be brought into public use in November next year

Work on the construction of the new Integrated Bus Terminal (IBT) and allied infrastructure at Panjapur on the Tiruchi-Madurai highway began on Monday.

Minister for Municipal Administration K. N. Nehru inaugurated the work in the presence of Collector M. Pradeep Kumar, Mayor M. Anbazhagan, Commissioner of Police G. Karthikeyan, and Corporation Commissioner R. Vaithinathan. The project will be implemented with four components at an estimate of ₹349.98 crore. Of this, a sum of ₹159 crore will be spent on building the bus terminal and ₹84.78 crore for the Multi Utility Facilities Centre. Construction of a truck terminal will cost ₹65.90 crore and the formation of roads and rainwater and storm water drain will cost ₹40 crore.

While the Erode-based CMK Projects has bagged the contract to construct the bus terminal and Multi Utility Facilities Centre, Pudukottai-based S.R. United Infra Developers will take up the truck terminal and drainage project.

Mr. Nehru told reporters that it had been planned to complete the project within one year. The bus terminal was likely to be brought into public use in November next year. The bus terminal would come up on 40.60 acres of land. The total built-up area of the terminal would be 7.07 acres. More than 400 buses could be operated from the bus bays at the terminal. Separate bus bays would be constructed for short-distance, long-distance and city buses. The terminal would have a facility to park 556 four-wheelers, 1,125 two-wheelers and 350 autorickshaws.

The Minister said that the multi-utility facilities centre would come up on 5.20 acres. It would have a ground floor and four floors. While 149 shops would be constructed on the ground floor, the first floor would have 193 shops.

Twenty-nine acres had been earmarked for the truck terminal. The built-up area of the terminal would be 2.88 acres. Facilities would be constructed for parking 360 trucks. In addition to them, 20 shops and accommodation for drivers would also be constructed.

Mr. Nehru said that concrete roads would be laid in and around the IBT, running to a total length of 1,048 metres and 36 metres in width. The length and width of the concrete road to be laid around the truck terminal would be 744 metres and 24 metres, respectively.