In a day or two, 32 ‘hi-tech’ buses (same as those flagged off in Bengaluru on Thursday) will be added to the existing fleet of city buses operated by the KSRTC in Mysuru.
The feature-rich BS-IV engine buses which are equipped with surveillance cameras in the front and back are expected to arrive either on Saturday or Sunday. Accordingly, they will be inducted and pressed into services for strengthening public transport here.
Mysuru will be getting around 73 buses and 32 buses will add to the fleet in the first instalment. The remaining buses will arrive by the end of this year since body building of buses was underway.
“We have been allocated 32 buses as of now. These are expected to reach here in a couple of days and they will be deployed immediately,” said KSRTC Divisional Controller (Mysuru urban) Ramamurthy. He told The Hindu that the buses had been allocated under JNNURM-II and had been built as specified by the Centre.
“These buses are slightly modified from those which had been given to us for the trial run. The buses that we are getting soon are technologically strong and superior,” he said.
Drivers had been given training on handling such buses since they come with ‘hi-tech’ features, including vehicle tracking and so on. Other features include voice announcement system with LED display and electro-pneumatic doors.
The buses had been specially manufactured to enable the Intelligent Transport System (ITS), based on the specifications of the Union Ministry of Urban Development.
These buses are disabled-friendly as there is a ramp for the benefit of physically challenged persons. There is also a provision for contacting the control room by the drivers in case of a breakdown or emergency.
Mysuru was the first in the State to get camera-enabled buses when a set of 10 buses had been allotted to the city for trial operations.
The buses allotted for trial operations had to be temporarily withdrawn sometime ago owing to some technical reasons. This delayed the full-fledged induction of such buses to the existing fleet. But the buses were later cleared for induction and are now set to strengthen the public transport network here and in many other cities.
