Cheralathan, who retired as Managing Director of the Salem Transport Corporation and served for many years in the MTC, said Madras city had public transport right from Independence in 1947, when the Madras government nationalised public transport. MTC, which originally started with a fleet of 30 buses at one point, had to convert lorries for transporting people because of the huge crowd and had very few bus depots (also used as bus termini). As part of the MTC’s evolution to provide better amenities, it later introduced double-decker buses, with one being imported from England, and air-conditioned (AC) buses.