As part of strengthening the public transport system in the state, the government has decided to purchase 1391 new buses, Transport Minister P Mahender has said.
Addressing a press conference at Secretariat here on Wednesday along with RTC Joint Managing Director Ramana Rao and OSD Krishnakanth, the Minister said that Rs 350 crore will be spent for purchasing the new buses during 2016-17. As per chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s directive, 1100 villages will get connectivity through the slogan of “ Bus and road for every village” in the state, he maintained. The new buses will include 95 AC Rajadhani, 386 Super Luxury, 600 Express, 74 Palle Velugu, 236 Mini buses, 100 AC and 331 Palle Velugu, he said.
1365 buses for Krishna Pushkaralu
The minister stated that it was decided to press in as many as 1365 buses to cater to the needs of devotees for Krishna Puskhar festivities beginning on August 12 and concluding on 23. The Minister discussed with RTC Chairman Somarapu Satyaranayana about the arrangements for the pushkar festivities which need adequate number of buses. He asked the officials to see that the holy Krishna Pusharalu be conducted in a grand manner, avoiding any sort of inconvenience as they have earlier conducted Godavari Pushkarlu and Sammakka and Sarakka Jatara.
Keeping in view the large number of devotees coming from various districts, more number of buses should be plied from various destinations to the pushkar ghats. ‘Let the devotees not depend on private buses and vehicles for the pushkar festivities’ he said adding that 300 AC buses were being plied this time. The following number of buses will shift the devotees to pushkar ghats: 248 buses to Bichupally, 160 to Nagarjuna Sagar, 150 to Srisailam, 50 to Viajayawada, 60 each to Somasila and Matampally, 32 to Vadapally and 165 more buses to other villages like Nettempadu, Gandimalla, Makthal, Kaipur and Pebbair. From Khammam 400 RTC staff will monitor 235 buses to be plied to Vijayawada.
Free buses will be operated from pushkar ghats to nearby bus stands including – 60 from Pebbair to Rangapur, 80 from Pottichalma to Nagarjuna Sagar, 40 from Bothalapalem to Vadapally and 30 to Matampally. (NSS)