Here’s cool news in the hot summer for RTC passengers travelling by AC buses to Tirupathi, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Bangalore. The APSRTC has not only reduced the fare ranging from Rs.52 to Rs.65 but also brought down the travelling time by about 30 minutes.
There are 10 AC services being operated from Visakhapatnam to various destinations. These include two Garuda services each to Bangalore and Chennai, one Indra, one Garuda and three Garuda plus services to Hyderabad and one Indra bus to Tirupathi. The stoppages of these services and distance have also been reduced. These buses, with effect from April 16, will be re-routed via Kovvur and Nallajerla (between Rajahmundry and Eluru), thereby bringing down the distance by 37-km, Deputy Chief Traffic Manager (rural) P. Jeevan Prasad has said.
The rail-cum-road bridge has been repaired recently and it will cut down the travel time by around 30 minutes. The number of stoppages for these services to Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad, which were 13, 11 and 8 respectively have been brought down to three and two stops. The services to Chennai and Tirupathi will stop at Rajahmundry, Vijayawada and Nellore, while those to Bangalore will stop at Rajahmundry, Vijayawada and Tirupathi. The buses to Hyderabad will stop at Rajahmundry and Vijayawada.
The new fares for various destinations (old fare given in brackets) are: Bangalore Rs.1,738 (1799), Chennai Rs.1449 (1510), Tirupathi (Indra) Rs.1093 (1146) and Hyderabad Rs.1,047 (1108), Rs.1120 (1185) and Rs.900 (952) for Garuda, Garuda plus and Indra respectively.
“The USP of RTC is safety and punctuality and buses on the above routes are so timed to reach their destinations by 8 a.m. or 9 a.m. so that passengers could attend to their work without losing a day,” says Mr. Jeevan Prasad.
