CHENNAI: It’s curtains for the hop-on-hop-off service to attract tourists in the city. Run on the lines of a similar one in London, the service has been discontinued and its air-conditioned coaches transferred to the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC).Starting Wednesday, the swanky coaches have started offering shuttle service, picking up passengers at the Meenambakkam airport.The hop-on-hop-off service was among the prominent initiatives of the previous DMK government to attract international tourists to the city. It was introduced on two different routes in February 2009.While the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation operated it on the East Coast Road (Tiruvanmiyur-Mamallapuram), the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) based at Villupuram was assigned the the job of operating it within Chennai.At that point in time, financial crunch in MTC was cited as the reason why it was kept out of the hop-on-hop-off service radar. In contrast, TNSTC (Villupuram) was then financially sound.Four air-conditioned mini buses were deployed for the city tour covering 16 tourist spots, including Fort St George, Marina Beach, Kapaleeswarar Temple, Guindy National Park, Valluvar Kottam, Government Museum and Ripon Building. Tourists could hop on and off at will as the buses kept shuttling between the tourist spots through the day.“However, from day one the coaches proved to be white elephants,” a senior official with TNSTC told Express. “The services had poor patronage, except during the tourist season. We were incurring huge revenue losses due to the service,” the official added. The transport authorities then approached the tourism department to takeover the services, but the latter refused. Thereafter, the four luxury coaches were transferred to the Metropolitan Transport Corporation.
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