After a long time APSRTC has decided to replace it’s rattling old fleet of about 6000 buses which have clocked above 12 Lakh kilometers in a phased manner. The new fleet of 6000 buses would be procured by the coming financial year end and it has already started replacing some of its buses. The new buses are being procured by the VGF of Rs 200 crores provided by the government to APSRTC to over come the losses it has incurred because of the ongoing agitations and many other reasons. About 4000 new buses are expected to be on road by the year end and the remaining fleet of 2000 buses would arrive by next year.
Part if the new fleet, about 300 buses were flagged off by the transport minister of AP on the 25 of October. The new fleet consisted of 18 “INDRA” buses, and 2 “GARUDA Plus” buses. It also consisted of 100 CNG city buses for Hyderabad.
APSRTC INDRA Buses
Indra buses have been pressed in to service to cater to the needs of middle class passengers who cannot afford to travel in a Garuda. These buses have been procured to connect the district head quarters by an A/C service so that the passengers may have comfortable journey.
These are mainly built on ASHOK LEYLAND chassis (230HP engine) by body builders like JCBL and SANVEE. Each bus costs around 38 Lakhs and about 100 buses are being procured out of which 25 have already been pressed in to service. The remaining 75 buses are expected to arrive by January 2012.The ticket prices are 1.20 Rs/Km and the minimum charge is Rs. 25.
Garuda Plus buses
Seems APSRTC has woken up to the craze of multi-axle buses. After a long wait APSRTC has also procured 2 of the state of the art multi axle buses and it has plans to extend the fleet to 42 out of which 22 would be of VOVLVO and 20 would be of Mercedes-Benz.
For now it has procured two Mercedes-Benz buses and named them Garuda Plus. These buses would ply on long routes like Hyderabad-Shiridi and Hyderabad-Mumbai. The ticket prices would be higher than that of Garuda.
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