HYDERABAD: With an ageing fleet of buses at its disposal, the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation is in a dire need of acquiring new ones. The 1,400 buses being acquired by the corporation this year will be mere replacements for the old ones.
A fund of Rs 140 crore that has been set aside for buying new buses in this year’s State budget is yet to be released. While the Garuda and Indra buses have already entered the service, the 500 Deluxe buses and 152 buses that were meant for the city are yet to arrive and are expected to be delayed by a couple of months, according to TSRTC.
Sample this: TSRTC retires an ordinary bus after it has run for 13 lakh km and a multi-axle bus after plying for 8 lakh km. High-tech buses that have run 8.5 lakh km are then converted into ordinary buses and operated till they complete a run of 13 lakh km.
“We have taken approval for 1,150 buying vehicles and we have procured 25 multi-axle buses.
We have finalised the deal for 58 buses and have placed orders. The chassis have arrived and the bodies are under fabrication. Another, around, 950 buses are under negotiation,” said O Venkateshwaralu, chief maintenance engineer, TSRTC.
Not enough funds for new buses
The State budget had a provision of Rs 140 crore for new buses. An ordinary bus costs Rs 20 to Rs 25 lakh. Thus, for Rs 140 crore, the RTC may be able to procure just 500 to 600 buses whereas it needs to replace 1,000 ageing buses a year on an average. “We need to replace 1,000 buses a year. For that, we need the finances of both TSRTC and the government,” said a senior RTC official.