VIJAYAWADA: The APSRTC will resume operation of city bus services from Saturday in view of the village and ward secretariat staff recruitment exams scheduled to be held from September 20 to 26, said Covid-19 Special Task Force Officer and Transport Principal Secretary MT Krishna Babu on Friday. “The buses will continue to run after the exams as well. As per the guidelines issued by the Health Department, alternate seats will be occupied in each bus, one person will be deployed at every bus stop to check the body temperature of those boarding the buses.
Travelling by standing in the buses is strictly prohibited and those above 60 years of age are advised not to travel,” he said, adding that concessions such as bus pass, student pass and senior citizen pass, will not be given in the current situation. Regarding the inter-state transportation negotiations with the Telangana government, he said that three conditions were put forward by the neighbouring State.
“We do not have any problem with two of the three conditions, which demand covering equal total distance by buses of both the States and optimum level of operations. For the third, which is the route-wise parity, we have requested them to increase their kilometres by 50 per cent and we have agreed to reduce the same number of kilometres as the demand is high on certain routes.
By making this compromise, we will lose business, which will go directly to private players, but still we have agreed to it. Moreover, we are running 71 bus services between Vijayawada and Hyderabad, while they are running only 27 buses. We have requested them to equalise it with us so that route-wise parity will be maintained,” explained Krishna Babu. Further, he mentioned that it will take at least seven to 10 days to inaugurate the Kanaka Durga and Benz Circle flyovers considering the health condition of Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari.
“Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has written a letter to the Centre seeking updates on the Minister’s health so that the nearest date for inauguration of the flyovers can be fixed,” he said. Krishna Babu also said that the highways will be connected to mandal headquarters in two phases at a cost of Rs 6,400 crore. Fourteen companies with 25 bids participated in the tender process of the first phase.
“Widening of national highways and construction of bridges will be taken up at a cost of Rs 6,400 crore. These works will be executed as per the guidelines of World Bank,” he said, adding that the process of e-tender was conducted as per the norms of the NIC. Works worth Rs 2,978 crore will be started in the first phase. “About 30 per cent of work of finalising the tenders will be completed by the first week of October. The works for which tenders are signed, will be completed within a year,” he said.