The work of setting up another bus terminus at Tiruvannamalai town on the Chennai-Tindivanam road at a cost of ₹30.15 crore is in progress. , Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Nearly four decades after the first bus terminus was established, Tiruvannamalai city will soon get another huge terminus as work begins on the ₹30.15-crore facility on the Chennai-Tindivanam road, maintained by the State Highways .
The increasing number of visitors to the temple town was a major reason for the construction of the new terminus as the facility would be able to handle more passengers. Currently, the terminus handles over 400 buses, mostly operated by the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC), and over three lakh commuters daily to and from the congested complex.
During festival days and weekends, the number of passengers increases by at least 25%. “During Mahadeepam and other festivals, the terminus finds it challenging to handle lakhs of passengers visiting the temple town from different parts of the country. Hence, we have decided to build a new terminus on the outskirts as it will ease the movement of traffic in the city,” said K. Murugesan, Commissioner, Tiruvannamalai Municipality Hindu,
After two years of paperwork, the municipality was able to acquire 6.6 acres of land from the Agriculture Department, which houses a defunct oil manufacturing unit of the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Oil Seeds Growers’ Federation Limited (TANCOF), for the new terminus for ₹3.99 crore Available in , Eight of the defunct unit’s buildings and more than a dozen trees are being removed from the complex to build the new facility. The existing open terminus near the Collectorate is established in only two acres with limited facilities.
As per the plan, the terminus, which will be built by the Tiruvannamalai municipality, will have waiting rooms, bus bays, commercial premises, parking lots, public announcement system, digital timing board, time keeper’s office, water taps, toilets and ramps for passengers. Disabled Passengers. The terminus will also have CCTV cameras to provide better surveillance. LED lights within the new facility will be solar powered. Police post will also be built, the entire work is expected to be completed in 2024.
Unlike the existing terminus, the new facility will connect all three major stretches from Chennai, Madurai and Bengaluru with the city. Also, the new facility is much closer to the 14-km-long Girivalam Path than the existing terminus, which is at least two km away from the path. Visitors, especially women and senior citizens, have to walk from the terminus to Girivalam Path.