The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (Chennai) Ltd. - (MTC), is the agency that operates the public bus service in Chennai, India. It is a subsidiary of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Ltd. As of December 2022 the MTC had a total fleet of 3,436 buses with 3,233 scheduled services, with on average 2.946 million passengers per day. On March 22, 2016, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways reported that Chennai had the most crowded buses in the country with 1300 passengers per bus in each direction per day. During peak hours, on some routes, a bus with a capacity to accommodate 80 persons carries twice the number of people due to the extensiveness of the system. It has an operating area of 3,929 square kilometres (1,517 sq mi). MTC has a total of 604 routes with its largest terminus being Broadway in Central Chennai.

Greater Chennai Metropolitan Area, or simply the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA), is fourth-most populous metropolitan area in India and the 35th most populous in the world. The CMA consists of the core city of Chennai, which is coterminous with the Chennai district, and its suburbs in Kanchipuram, Chengalpattu, Thiruvallur and Ranipet districts. The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) is the nodal agency that handles town planning and development within the metro area. In 1974, an area encompassing 1,189 km2 (459 sq mi) around the city was designated as the metropolitan area which was subsequently expanded to 5,904 km2 (2,280 sq mi) in 2022.