State-of-the-art luxury ‘sleeper' 2-tier AC buses are being introduced by AP State Road Transport Corporation to Tirupati and Hyderabad in the next few days. The technically advanced buses are designed to reduce the fatigue of long distance travel in buses.
The new service, christened ‘Vennela', would have 24 berths each and each berth would have a 9” LCD TV with earphones to enable passengers to watch movies of their choice without disturbing or getting disturbed by other passengers, RTC Regional Manager Y. Jagadeesh Babu told a media conference here on Friday.
The new service would be very convenient to techies from Bangalore and Hyderabad, who come during the weekends or on short vacation to the city. They could attend to their duty after a good night's sleep in the hi-tech buses. Passengers would be given bed rolls, blankets and pillows and there would be an attendant to take care of their needs on board.
‘In high demand'
The Regional Manager said that the Garuda and the Garuda plus service introduced to Tirupati recently were in high demand. There were Garuda services to Bangalore and very soon Garuda plus services would also be introduced to Bangalore. The RTC has entered into an agreement with a private hotel to cater to the accommodation needs of pilgrims travelling to Tirupati.
The hotel, located right opposite the Bus Stand at Tirupati, would be very convenient for pilgrims to check-in with their luggage and leave for Tirumala. Cloak room would be provided at the hotel for the benefit of pilgrims. He said such an arrangement was already made by the RTC for pilgrims travelling to Shirdi from Hyderabad. There were plans to arrange ‘sheegra darshan' (quick darshan) for passengers travelling by RTC buses to Tirupati. Passengers, who require accommodation at Tirupati, would have to pay for it at the time of booking their tickets.
He said that two AC buses arrived in the city on Friday. These two buses, to be used in city service, would be put into operation in the next few days.
The plan was to operate one from RTC Complex (Dwaraka Bus Station complex) to Steel Plant and the other from Visakhapatnam Railway Station to Vizianagaram via Madhurawada.
Mr. Jagadeesh Babu said that Visakhapatnam Region was the only one of the 23 regions in the State, which has made a profit of Rs.61 lakh during the first nine months of the present financial year while all other regions had incurred losses.
Visakhapatnam Region occupied the top slot when it came to Occupancy Ratio (OR), which was between 50 and 60 per cent. The target was to increase OR to 80 per cent.
Deputy Chief Traffic Manager (rural) Veeraiah Choudhary and Deputy CTM (city) RVS Nageswara Rao were present.
