As many as 203 buses of the total 240 new CNG buses sanctioned for the city under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) will be used to augment the existing services, which would be a record of sorts, according to APSRTC Executive Director (Engineering & IT) U. Sudhakar Rao.
Mr. Rao was speaking to reporters on Wednesday after inspecting Ibrahimpatnam and Governorpet depots, which were being converted into CNG depots for hosting these new buses. He interacted with the staff and approved the layout plans for CNG outlets.
He said that the Governorpet depot would be readied in about three weeks, while the Ibrahimpatnam depot could take a little more time. Once all the new buses arrived in the city in about a couple of months, they would be positioned temporarily at Vidyadharapuram depot, where already 100 CNG buses were being hosted. After Ibrahimpatnam and Governorpet depots were fully ready with CNG fuel outlets, the new buses would be distributed among the two depots.
Pointing out that the city presently had only 377 buses running on different routes, Mr. Rao said that an addition of 203 buses in one go was something unprecedented in the country. The remaining 37 new buses will be used to replace the existing fleet.
Of the 240 new buses, 48 would be of Tata make, with low-floor design for easy embarking and disembarking.
Cool comfort
Of these 48, eight were air-conditioned buses, which would be operated to nearby towns and cities like Guntur, Tenali, Machilipatnam and Nuzvid. The remaining 192, manufactured by Leyland, would come with semi low-floor design. Regional Manager A. Koteswara Rao, Deputy Chief Traffic Manager A. Sudhakar and Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer S. Dhanunjaya Rao were present at the press conference.
