In a bid to boost public transport and decongest roads, the Tamil Nadu highways department has proposed to introduce an exclusive lane for buses on a short stretch for the first time in the city.

Modelled on the bus rapid transport system (BRTS), the lane will be introduced on a trial basis on a three-to-four km stretch, from Koyambedu Junction to Padi on Inner Ring Road, in a couple of months.

“We hope the exclusive lane for buses on Inner Ring Road will be in place in two months,” highways chief engineer Y R Balaji said on Monday. The system would be extended further along the same road based on the public response, he added. He was speaking at a seminar on road user safety organised by Alumni Association, College of Engineering, Guindy.

The Koyambedu-Padi route leads to Madhavaram and Manali, which are bustling industrial hubs. Vehicle movement on the stretch is estimated at over 1.2 lakh units per day. Since the width of the road is over 100 feet, it lends itself to the experiment.

The state government has been considering introducing BRTS to decongest the city’s roads, which see about 700 new private vehicles being added every day. The BRTS model with exclusive bus lanes on arterial roads is meant to increase speed and frequency of services and enable mass movement of commuters. Earlier, the government had announced plans to introduce the system on the proposed 15.5-km high-speed corridor from Adyar estuary to Porur, a six-lane corridor that will have two dedicated lanes for buses. Monday’s announcement comes as a prelude to the government’s future plans.