Bus commuters in this joint State capital will soon have more luxury buses with proposals being firmed up to buy 80 low-floor high-end Volvo buses at a cost of Rs. 1 crore each.
The buses will be bought on cost-sharing, with the Telangana wing of Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation coming up with 50 per cent and the Centre and State sharing 35 and 15 per cent, respectively, said Telangana Transport Minister P. Mahender Reddy. Also, the government has given the nod for the corporation to buy 340 buses and permitted 283 routes including 223 in Hyderabad and 60 in the districts, he said.
At an interaction during his first visit to ‘Bus Bhavan’, the APSRTC’s corporate office here on Thursday, he said the Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was keen on branding everything about Hyderabad on a global-level and expanding the reach of public transport to reach every nook and corner of the State was a priority area.
The government wanted to improve connectivity, particularly laying roads and introducing bus services to 1,341 villages across the 10 districts that were not served by the APSRTC, he said. About 20 new depots would be established, including over half-a-dozen in Hyderabad and adjoining Ranga Reddy districts. He said officials were identifying government lands because they would be cost-beneficial and also because the depots would be faster to set up but wherever there was no option, they would buy private land.
The Chief Minister had assured of his support when briefed about the corporation’s financial health, the Minister said. Currently, against daily revenues of Rs. 10 crore, expenditure worked out to Rs. 12 crore per day. “Our fares are less compared to States like Karnataka and Maharashtra but our hands are tied because we are also service-oriented and do not burden the masses, apart from which it is a question of providing employment at an average of six jobs per bus we run,” Mr. Mahender said.
