Old City residents’ can take refuge from summer while commuting as they can travel in RTC buses, beginning this April.
“Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) is introducing air conditioned buses in Old City on some routes,” said Transport Minister, P Mahender Reddy.
TSRTC is also set to introduce services that will be run with mini buses. Also, Falaknuma and Midhani bus stations will begin operations next month.
MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi, in a discussion asked about how many old buses were still plying on the city roads even after their average life span was completed and said such vehicles were contributing to increased air pollution in the city. He also asked the minister to introduce mini buses in Old City and destination signs on these buses be written in Urdu, at least in areas where Urdu speakers are predominant.
Akbaruddin said it was surprising that 402 people were killed in 827 road accidents involving RTC buses with most of these fatalities occurring when people were trying to get off the buses. Other MIM MLAs Moazzam Khan and Jaffar Hussain said many bus services were withdrawn with RTC citing poor occupancy as the reason for it to do so.
“3,519 buses including 131 CNG fuelled ones ply in the Greater Hyderabad with about 33 lakh people commuting daily,” said Mahender Reddy.
“RTC considers buses 15 years old or that ply more than 13.60 lakh kilometres as those that need to be condemned. In the city, no bus aged over 15 years is on the roads,” he added.
He said: The state government allocated `140 crore to RTC for procuring new buses and mini buses would be introduced to residential colonies and also to provide connectivity from metro rail sta tions. He said SETWIN buses will not be allowed to run services on national highways as per the existing rules.