Private buses continue to flout rules

Most of them are owned by politicians: official

Commuting on several pothole-ridden arterial stretches connecting the city with neighbouring districts has become a nightmare for motorists due to reckless driving of private buses. The city traffic police and the Transport Department have been finding it to tough to rein in the errant drivers and ensure smooth flow of traffic.

The Union Territory has a little over 7,000 buses. Of these, over 3,600 are inter-State and intra-State buses. With most buses flouting the rules, there is a serious problem, motorists say. A case in point is the Villupuram Road where private buses stop in the middle of the road to allow people to board and alight. With no service lane, the motorists behind are just forced to halt till the buses move.

Over-speeding and rash driving are behind over 50% of road accidents, followed by negligence of drivers of heavy vehicles, especially private buses. A majority of road accidents have occurred on the arterial Cuddalore Road and Villupuram Road, data shows.