As day temperatures increase in Prakasam district, the State-run Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation has taken up a novel initiative to ply buses with cool mats attached to windows to provide relief to passengers from the soaring temperature.
On a pilot basis, 80 buses with 12 mats made of straw are being run on different routes coming under eight depots across the district, which witnessed drought for the fourth year in succession, says APSRTC Regional Manager K. Adam Saheb.
The routes are selected based on assessment of the severity of the heat wave as the district, especially the western parts, experience temperatures in the range of 40 to 47 degrees Celsius, especially during “Rohini Karte”. This period is the harshest part of summer when people remain clueless on how to beat the heat with real feel temperature going up to 50 degrees C.
Based on the working of the cool mats and response from the travelling public, the authorities will be put them in more number of buses, he adds.
On the working of the cool mats, he says a 210-litre barrel is fitted on top of each bus and water trickles on to the mats through a network of pipes put at a cost of ₹5,000 per bus to bring down the temperature by about 2 to 3 degrees C in select Palle Velugu buses boarded mostly by common people, who are prone to suffer sunstroke because of long exposure to the sun, Mr. Saheb told The Hindu .
“'We have also made arrangements for supply of safe drinking water in all the bus stations to prevent any sunstroke deaths as insufficient intake of fluids is the prime reason for heatstroke-related sickness,” he says, hoping that the passenger-friendly initiatives will improve the occupancy ratio by at least a couple of points from the present 74%.
Meanwhile, district officials said no heatstroke deaths occurred from anywhere in the district so far this year. Arrangements have been made for setting up of water kiosks in public places in all the localities and for distribution of ORS through public health centres, they added.
