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Transport in Madurai

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Transport in Madurai

Madurai has well-developed transport facilities. Modes of transport in Madurai include road, rail and air. Madurai faces increasing daily traffic problems, so master plans have been prepared to reduce the city traffic and traffic problems in suburbs.

Contents

Road

Madurai is located south of Tamil Nadu. It is the second largest city in Tamil Nadu and connects the southern districts to northern districts in Tamil Nadu, and is also the major transport city in Tamil Nadu. The floating population is much heavier in the city during the day time. Most of the people from southern districts visit for medical, educational, marketing, cargo, shopping, tourism or official purposes. Day by day Madurai city faces more traffic problems. It is the one of the important traffic circles in Tamil Nadu.

There are 12,754 registered three-wheeled vehicles called auto rickshaws, which are commercially available for renting within the city. In addition to the government operated city buses that are used for public transport, there are 236 registered private mini-buses that support local transportation. Madurai connects with the following major national highways;

The state highways passing through the city are SH-32, SH-33 and SH-72, which connect various parts of Madurai district. Madurai is one of the seven circles of the Tamil Nadu State Highway network, is the headquarters of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (Madurai) and provides local and inter-city bus transport across four districts, namely Madurai, Dindigul, Theni, Virudhunagar, .

City bus service

Madurai city has major city bus stands and originating terminals such as;

  • Periyar bus stand [ Madurai central ]
  • Anna bus stand [ Madurai east ]
  • Anuppanadi bus stand [ Madurai east ]
  • Pudur Bus stand [ Madurai north ]
  • Palanganatham Bus stand [ Madurai south ]
  • Thiruparakundram [ Madurai south ]
  • Thirunagar [ Madurai south ]
  • Thirumangalam [ Madurai suburb ]
  • Othakadai [ Madurai north east ]
  • Madurai city has the best city bus service second only to Chennai. The major city areas are connected by Madurai city bus service. Most of the buses, like Ashok leyland and TATA Marcopolo, are equipped with LED Displays. The city buses are available during day time, but some important areas have city bus services all day long.

    Mofussil Bus service

    Madurai has two important mofussil bus terminus;

  • MIBT [ Mattuthavani Bus Terminus ]
  • Aarapalayam Bus Terminus [ Madurai West ]
  • MIBT ( Mattuthavani Integrated Bus Terminus )

    Mattuthavani Integrated Bus Stand is an ISO 9001:2000 certified integrated mofussil bus stand in the city of Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India and it is the one of the largest bus terminus in Tamil Nadu. It is the second busiest mofussil bus terminus in Tamil Nadu after CMBT. The bus station was built at the cost of R100 million.[1] After the successful launch of this new bus stand, more mofussil buses are being operated to the southern districts of Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Virudhunagar, Nagercoil, Ramanathapuram, Sivaganga and Northern districts like Chennai, Vellore, Trichy, Viluppuram, Perambalur, Pudukkottai, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Cuddalore, Tiruvannamalai from the station.

    Aarapalayam bus Terminus

    This is another important bus stand in Madurai. Some of the city buses operating here are Coimbatore region and Salem region. The cities like Dindigul, Theni, Coimbatore, Thirupur, Erode, Ooty, Palani, Salem, Namakkal, Karur, Dharmapuri, Hosur, Kodaikanal and Pollachi.

    In Arapalayam Bus Terminus there are 10 tracks are used to handle the mofussil buses

    Rail

    Madurai Junction railway station is one of the major railway junctions in south India and the headquarters of Madurai Railway Division. It is well connected with all major cities in India. Madurai division is the second largest by revenue in Southern Railway. It is one of the A1 graded stations in the Southern Railway (railway stations which earn of Rs. 50Cr p.a will get an A1 Grade). Madurai has two terminals;

  • Madurai Railway Junction (Passenger handling)
  • Koodal Nagar Railway Station (Goods handling)
  • Madurai Junction is an important railway junction in southern Tamil Nadu and constitutes a separate division of the Southern Railway. It is the second largest revenue division in Southern railway next to the Chennai division. There are direct trains from Madurai connecting important cities in India like Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Banglore, Hyderabad, Trivandrum, Coimbatore, Kollam, Kanyakumari, Trichy, Tirunelveli, Rameswaram, Thanjavur, Mayiladuthurai, Vijaywada, Calcutta, Nagpur, and Bhopal. The state government announced a monorail project for Madurai in 2011, which is in its planning stages.

    Air

    Madurai Airport (IATA: IXM, ICAO: VOMD) is a customs airport serving Madurai in the state of Tamil Nadu. The airport is located about 12 km (7.5 mi) from the Madurai railway station. The airport was established in 1956 It is one of the important airport in Tamil Nadu. It offers domestic flight services to major cities in India and international services to Colombo, Sri Lanka (beginning 20 September 2012). The carriers operating from the airport are Air India, Jet Airways and SpiceJet. The airport handled 520,000 passengers between April 2011 and March 2012.

    Terminals

    The airport has two adjacent terminals. Currently the integrated terminal is being used for both international and domestic purposes. The Airports Authority of India is planning to convert the old terminal into a cargo complex.

    Passenger terminal

    As the part of modernising 35 non-metropolitan airports, AAI constructed a state-of-art new integrated passenger terminal adjacent to the old terminal. The 1.29 billion (US$19 million) new integrated passenger terminal building was inaugurated on 12 September 2010. A total of 610 acres (250 ha) of land is under acquisition for the expansion of the runway to 12,500 ft (3,800 m) to accommodate large jet aircraft. This terminal with an area of 17,560 m2 (189,000 sq ft) can handle a passenger capacity of 250 each on arrival and departure. The airport parking area has the capacity to park 375 cars and 10 buses. Some of the features of the new terminal include:

  • 16 Check-in counters
  • 12 Immigration counters
  • 1 Security counter
  • 5 customs counters
  • 3 Conveyor belts (47 m (154 ft) each)
  • 2 X-ray scanners for baggage
  • 105 CISF strength
  • Total aircraft stands = 7
  • 1 B767-400
  • 1 A310-300
  • 3 B737-800W/A320-200
  • 2 ATR 72–500.
  • The new terminal has two lounges, a VIP lounge managed by AAI and the Commercial Important persons (CIP) lounge managed by TNCC-Madurai.

    Cargo terminal

    Considering the growing cargo potential in Madurai Airport, AAI has decided to modify the old terminal into a full-fledged cargo complex. To start with, the union finance ministry has issued customs notifications dated 28 May 2013 regarding the handling of cargo at the Madurai airport.

    References

    Transport in Madurai Wikipedia