The first full-fledged two-day tour of AICC president Rahul Gandhi to the City on August 13 and 14 will have an added attraction in the form of a ultra-luxury air conditioned caravan acquired by the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee along with a 31-seater Bharat Benz make bus.
The special custom made luxury caravan has several features that is going to make the task of the Congress leaders easy during the party chief’s road shows. An used Swaraj Mazda van has been given complete overhaul to convert it into a perfect caravan.
The six-seater caravan has a hydraulic lift that will take the leaders to the top of the van from where they can address a gathering of close to 15,000. A makeshift dais is arranged on top of the bus to accommodate 15 persons. “We thought the caravan will be good during Mr. Gandhi’s tour,” TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy told The Hindu .
Completely modified
With eight CCTV installed all round, the caravan has a dedicated monitor to view the images from the cameras. High voltage public address system has been fixed with flood lights. An attached toilet is provided. Congress leader A. Maheshwar Reddy, who was closely involved in the modification of the van said it took three months for the customised van to be completely ready.
With less than a year left for the general elections, the TPCC has moved into the poll mode by launching its bus yatra. The State Congress leadership decided to buy the campaign buses as it was in the midst of the Praja Chaitanya yatra and hired a bus from a city based operator.
The Congress leaders so far have travelled across 40 Assembly constituencies in the hired luxury air conditioned bus and paid fairly good amount as the charges.
“First, a Hyderabad based automotive body building manufacturer agreed to begin from the scratch. Then we identified a specialist, who assembled hydraulic lifts for VIP campaign vehicles in Kerala. After two rounds of visit, he agreed to fix the lift. A Chennai based company provided central air conditioning for the van. All put together, the modified caravan cost us about ₹45 lakh,” Mr. Maheshwar Reddy said.
