CHENNAI:Drivers by night, nomads by day

Pics by A Raja Chidambaram

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai on November 23, 2011:

Source:http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/drivers-by-night-nomads-by-day/335973.html

CHENNAI: For Kumaresan, one of the drivers with a well-known omni bus service at the Chennai Contract Carriage Bus Terminus (CCCBT), Koyambedu, the day starts with a frantic search for a retiring space at the terminus after driving for more than 12 hours.

Like Kumaresan, there are more than 500 drivers and cleaners, who are deprived of the comforts offered to  government drivers by the State Express Transport Corporation at the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT).

With no retiring facilities available for them, such drivers and cleaners lead a nomadic life at the terminus by sleeping on pavements till evening.

These drivers have to face innumerable hardships everyday from morning till the time they don their  white uniforms and slip into the driver’s seat.

“For us, the run starts in the morning. With no retiring facilities available at the terminus, barring a few drivers, who prefer to sleep inside the buses, most of us sleep on pavements and also at some of the shops lying vacant for years,” Kannan, a 50-year-old driver and president of the drivers’ association inside the terminus, told City Express.

According to drivers, this sleep deprivation coupled with other untold hardships at the terminus, could adversely impact their driving capabilities on the road.

“Without optimal rest, most of the drivers are forced to begin driving and no one knows what will happen,” Kannan said.

After a short ‘pavement nap’, drivers then assemble in the open, near the CCCBT’s poorly maintained two-wheeler parking bay, to bathe.

“With the only available bathing facility inside the terminus in a state of repair for years, drivers are forced to bathe in the open,” Kannan added. “We are not seeking facilities on par with the SETC’s drivers. Provide us with at least the minimum facilities,” he appealed to the CMDA, which maintains the terminus. 
Even a cursory glance at the table given above tells the grim story of  a mounting number of road accidents caused, possibly, by sleep deprivation. Will the authorities  wake up?