The wait for the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation’s (TSRTC) initiative of introducing air-conditioned and non-airconditioned mini-buses from colonies in Nizamabad and Warangal to the State capital appears to be longer than announced.
It was around the third week of October last that Transport Minister P. Mahender Reddy and corporation Chairman S. Satyanarayana had announced the initiative and said the order for 60 A/C and 40 non-A/C mini-buses had already been placed with automobile major, Mahindra and Mahindra.
The model that the engineers at the TSRTC zeroed in was a 21-seater T-32 BS IV mini-buses with the body built by the Mumbai-based MG Group. The Minister had informed that in all, 236 buses costing ₹40 crore, including 136 non-A/C versions, were being introduced. As of now, about a 100 mini-buses are ready to hit the road and parked in a yard adjacent to the Musheerabad depot of the corporation.
Originally, the services were to be launched in December, but delivery appeared to have been delayed. When asked, senior officials had said that they were trying to fix January 26 as the date. But, this plan failed because the Parade Grounds was taken up for the Republic Day parade.
CM’s appointment
Another reason for the delay is the fact that the Minister and TSRTC management want Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to flag the buses off. Mr. Rao’s office is yet to give the TSRTC the Chief Minister’s appointment for the same. Once the date is fixed, a senior official said they would get the Parade Grounds and see that the buses were flagged off with much fanfare.
Passengers going by the mini-buses would have the comfort of luxury push-back seats, mobile phone charging ports, air suspension system, a liquid crystal display television with a high-class audio output and drinking water bottles. “In short, the service would be much like a budget airline,” the Minister had boasted.
Together with the mini-buses, 140 more buses of the super luxury category and ‘Rajdhani’ (formerly Indra) are also ready to be pressed into service. The TSRTC officials are raring to go and are waiting only for the Chief Minister to spare time to flag off the brand new buses.
