Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) on Tuesday unveiled sleeper buses that it plans to operate as night services along 16 routes, starting this week.
The 200 new non-air conditioned buses are 12 m in length and specially designed for passengers on longer overnight routes. Each bus has 30 recliner chairs and 15 beds. It is also equipped with facilities like reading lamp, night lamp, charging point, fan and two huge storage compartments. The buses also have fire safety measures.
The new fleet was inaugurated by Rohit Dhende, a passenger, in the presence of Ranjit Singh Deol, vice-president and administrative director, MSRTC.
“People travelling through the night prefer sleeper coaches and passengers on longer routes prefer recliners. We wanted to integrate both services into one. However, the rates for this bus will be similar to the Hirkani buses in the State,” Mr. Deol said.
The provision of seats will be on a first-come-first-serve basis and reservation can be done both online and offline. The current routes for the bus include Kolhapur-Nashik, Pune-Nagpur, Kolhapur-Hyderabad, Mumbai Central-Hingoli, Parel-Bhatwadi, Mumbai Central-Miraj, Mumbai Central-Tarakpur, Mumbai Central-Shevgaon, Borivali-Devgad, Borivali-Devachegothane, Thane-Akkalkot, Pune-Ganpatipule, Pune-Sakri, Kolhapur-Beed, Amravati-Pandharpur and Aurangabad-Ichalkaranji.
The fares start from ₹415 for Mumbai-Tarakpur and go up to ₹1,255 for Pune-Nagpur.
“We have commissioned these buses in the night so as to address the traffic issue. There is comparatively less traffic in the night, ensuring that the bus does not get delayed within the city,” said Mr. Deol.
MSRTC operates over 10 types of bus services, including the semi-luxury Hirkani, Night Express, AC-Shivneri, AC-Shivshahi and semi-sleeper Volvo AC, across the State. The service caters to around 67 lakh passengers on a daily basis.
Expansion of routes was being planned, an MSRTC spokesperson said.
