A significant number of techies took the bus to office on Tuesday, preferring to shun their private vehicles and office cabs for a day, to mark World Earth Day.
As part of efforts to decrease their carbon footprint, the ITsAP (IT and Its Association of AP) had given a call to its three lakh employees to observe “All Bus Day” on the occasion. Buoyed by the response, the association members said they would plan similar initiatives in the near future.
“The idea is to encourage employees to travel by public transport. We received positive feedback from IT firm managements that many employees commuted by public transport today. As a result of which there were lesser private vehicles in their respective office parking lots,” said ITsAP secretary P. Bipin Chandra.
To support the initiative, the APSRTC plied an additional 42 buses, which undertook 320 trips on the Hitec City, Ameerpet, Lingampally, Mehdipatnam and Bachupally routes. APSRTC nodal officer Vijay Lakshmi said the bus occupancy on routes to Hitec City rose by 30 per cent when compared to the regular days.