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.

CNG buses unveiled in Hyderabad city

For the first time in South India, Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) has introduced environment-friendly CNG (compressed natural gas) buses on Monday.

The buses which run with CNG will cause less noise and air pollution when compared to diesel buses.

Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy flagged off three CNG buses of the first batch. He congratulated the APSRTC managing director V. Dinesh Reddy and other officials for switching over to a clean transport system.

APSRTC has decided to introduce 95 more CNG run buses by the end of December 2007 in Vijayawada as Bhagyanagar Gas Limited expressed its willingness to set up CNG filing stations in RTC depots. Apart from the three buses flagged off today, another five buses will be operated in the Hyderabad region.

"The corporation is always ready for innovations for the satisfaction of lakhs of passengers. So, we will try to induct more CNG buses in a phased manner in the future," said Mr Dinesh Reddy after the inauguration of new buses.

APSRTC will soon run Ladies Secial Buses in Hyderabad

The APSRTC will soon run "Ladies' Special" from different parts of the city for the convenience of women commuters.

Chief Minister Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy told a meeting of the corporation that he had received several representations from women commuters citing problems faced by them during peak hours particularly during school and office hours and asked them to start special buses exclusively for women commuters immediately.

City region decided to operate special buses on 66 routes during peak hours.

Following are some of the routes from among the routes identified; 2J: Secunderabad to Jiaguda; 3C:

Afzalgunj to Uppal; 3H and 3HN: ECIL Crossroads to Afzalgunj; 5M: Secunderabad to Mehdipatnam; Secunderabad to Zoo Park; 8A: Secunderabad to Charminar among others.

10: Sanathnagar to Secunderabad; 47K: Kondapur to Secunderabad; 49: Secunderabad to Nampally; 65: Tolichowk to Charminar, 65S: Charminar to Moti Darwaza; 71: Uppal to Charminar among others.

95K: Madhuban Colony to Koti; 107: Dilsukhnagar to Secunderabad; 113E: Uppal to ESI, 113M: Mehdipatnam to Uppal; 123/5C: Secunderabad to Narsingi; 136: Nampally to ECIL Crossroads among others.

152: Dilsukhnagar to Nampally; 156H: NGOs Colony -Secretariat; 156V: NGOs Colony to Mehdipatnam; 158: Dilsukhnagar to Sanathnagar among others.

New running time schedule of APSRTC city buses

The road accidents are sure to increase in Hyderabad with the new running time schedule of APSRTC city buses. The RTC management, which is keen to earn more profits, has directed its 7,000 drivers to follow the revised running time schedule, which will enable the corporation to pick up more passengers with extra trips.

Hyderabad city region earns Rs 1.32 crore per day with its fleet of 2,895 buses. Approximately, 36 lakh passengers travel every day in RTC buses. However, the buses are proved to be insufficient as they will provide public transport for only 31 per cent of the total commuters. RTC, which is unable to add additional buses, decided to utilise the existing fleet for optimum level with the new schedule. For instance, a bus driver has to cover 19.5 kilometre distance between Falaknuma and Sanat Nagar in just one hour after stopping the bus in all the 20 bus stops for picking up the passengers. It's not so easy if we consider our road and traffic conditions.



The studies of several organi sations such as Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) reveal that the present average speed of the vehicles is only 12 kilometres per hour. But the RTC authorities are reportedly forcing the drivers to run the buses at 20 km ph on an average. It means, the drivers have to struggle a lot to meet the new deadlines in spite of the heavy congestion and traffic jams. "Several old buses are not in good condition. The accidents will occur if we run those unconditioned buses with heavy speed as per the new schedule," said M. Prabhakara Rao, a bus driver.

As many as 100 persons are being knocked down every year due to rash and negligent driving of the buses. As per the statistics of APSRTC, 100 persons died due to city buses in 2004-2005. The death toll was increased to 105 in 2005-2006. And 107 persons died in fatal accidents due to RTC buses in 2006-2007. In the last four months, 27 were knocked down by city buses in twin cities.

The drivers and conductors who are up in the arms against the APSRTC on Tuesday launched their agitation in 21 depots by wearing black badges. And they raised slogans against the management as part of lunch hour demonstrations.

"We will continue to fight until the management is ready to revise the timings after considering the city traffic and congestion," said Syed Mohammad, general secretary of National Mazdoor Union.

The running time schedule will create difficulties to the passengers particularly women, children and senior citizens since the buses will not stay in the bus stops even for 10 seconds.

"Sometimes, we fall down on roads as we are unable to catch the running buses, which are always jam-packed" said K. Prameela, a traveller. "With the new schedule, the bus will fly with jet speed. Hence we have to depend on auto rickshaws by paying more fare," she added.

However RTC officials argue by saying that the new timings were fixed to benefit the passengers. "Thousands of passengers are waiting in the bus stops. They cannot catch the bus unless a specific schedule is given," said an official of APSRTC city region.

"If the running time is increased, some trips will have to be cancelled and passengers will be put to hardship in peak hours" he added.