The Puducherry Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) is inducting 40 new buses into its fleet and plans to run the vehicles primarily on rural routes.
Twenty standard and 20 mini-buses are being provisioned under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).
“We are in the process of finalising the routes by next week or so and hope to put the new buses on the road soon,” PRTC Managing Director P. Devaraj said.
The PRTC is getting the vehicles under the JNNURM Scheme-II (2013), which had a tranche of 50 buses, including ten Volvo buses. In July 2014, the State-run operator introduced the Volvo fleet.
The JNNURM Scheme-I (2009) involved acquisition of 40 buses. The PRTC has also been giving a high-tech makeover to its newer buses by adopting Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) for features such as passenger information system, CCTV and e-ticketing, besides GPRS (general packet radio services) and GPS (global positioning system).
The design and specifications of the 20 Tata Starbus standard semi-low-floor buses and an equal number of mini-buses — which will run on narrow routes and difficult terrain of the hinterland routes — were earlier approved by the Central Institute of Road Transport, Pune, under the Ministry of Shipping and Transport.
“We have taken delivery of most of the new buses, including 17 of the 20 standard buses, and hope to acquire the remaining vehicles shortly,” Mr. Devaraj said.
When the expansion is complete, the fleet strength of the PRTC will go from the current 101 to 141 buses.
“Finalising routes is essentially driven by passenger demand. Public demand, occupancy rate and overcrowding are some of the determinants of route allocation. We are expediting the route-finalisation process,” said Transport Commissioner S.D. Sundaresan.
Sources say that what has complicated the route finalisation is the stipulation that buses acquired under the JNNURM are meant for intra-city operations and not to be deployed on inter-State routes, which is all the more constraining for a small city like Puducherry.
“What has to be decided is whether the new buses will ply only within the bounds of the Union Territory or on inter-State routes,” a source said.
Sources also pointed out that the State Transport Authority in Puducherry is authorised to make many allowances for plying JNNURM vehicles on short distance inter-State routes connecting adjacent towns such as Cuddalore and Villupuram after securing consent on single-point taxation from the Tamil Nadu government under a reciprocal agreement.
