The Consortium of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Workers Unions has alleged unorganised operation of mini-bus services from Old Bus Stand and New Bus Stand in Thanjavur.

The problem has arisen due to the New Comprehensive Mini Bus scheme, allowing the commencement or termination of mini-bus operations at bus stands/stops, launched by the previous DMK regime in June 2025, it said.

As the new scheme envisaged operation of mini-bus services for a maximum distance of 25 km as against 20 km in the old scheme launched in 1997, most of the fresh permits had the bus stands as their originating/destination points. Under the old scheme, a majority of mini-bus services were not allowed to be operated from or to the bus terminus/stands, sources said.

Until the launching of the new scheme last year, there were only 10 to 12 mini-bus services operated from the Old and New Bus Stand. As the number of such services were minimum, there was not much difficulty in regulating the mini-bus services, and most of them were operated during non-peak hours or early morning/night.

But once the new scheme came into force, the number of mini-buses originating/terminating at the bus terminus increased to 73, affecting the time-schedule of the Corporation town services.

The mini bus crew/owners, sources claimed, refused to heed to the directions of the Corporation time-keepers to operate their services without affecting the time-schedule of the TNSTC town bus services. Hence, the day-to-day collection of the TNSTC town bus services was affected, they added.

Hence, the Consortium has submitted a memorandum to Collector R. Revathi, who is also the Regional Transport Authority, seeking her intervention to find an amicable solution to the issue.