New low-floor buses to make city travel easy

The AP Road Transport Corporation will introduce lowfloor buses for the convenience of children, women senior citizens and physically challenged passengers.

Corporation officials studied the functioning of lowfloor buses in Chennai and Bangalore and are preparing proposals for designing the buses to meet the city's requirements.

After transport minister Kanna Lakshminarayana flagged off 50 new buses on Tuesday, RTC managing director V. Dinesh Reddy said that the corporation was also contemplating inducting vestibule buses which can accommodate more passengers.

Two bus units are connected by a vestibule. Mr Dinesh Reddy said, "We would like to induct AC and tourism buses. These will also help the organisation enhance its revenues," he added.

Hyderabad city region is expected to get 504 new buses this year, 258 for ordinary services, 198 metro expresses, 25 metrodeluxe buses and 23 mini buses. RTC has a fleet of 2,856 buses and transports 36 lakh passengers per day over 7.6 lakh passenger km on 914 routes.

Mr Lakshminarayana said they would appoint drivers and other personnel to operate the buses. "Government has no objection if the corporation recruits additional staff ," he said.