VIJAYAWADA: Starting Monday, Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) will resume bus services to Hyderabad. Initially, 120 buses will be operated to the Telangana capital from major cities of AP. The move comes after the Andhra Pradesh government relaxed curfew hours further, and Telangana lifted the lockdown completely. Bus services between the two neighbouring states had stopped over a month ago as both the governments imposed restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19.
“Following the states signing a memorandum of understanding, we have decided to operate 120 bus services on Monday to Hyderabad from Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Guntur, Nellore, Ongole, Tirupati, Nellore, Kurnool, Kadapa, Chitoor and Anantapur. The number of services will be enhanced gradually on the basis of demand,” APSRTC executive director (operations) KS Brahmananda Reddy told TNIE on Sunday.
In November 2020, the APSRTC and TSRTC had entered into an agreement allowing operation of the state buses in each other’s territory. As per the MoU, 826 TSRTC buses will cover 1,61,258 km in Andhra Pradesh, and 638 APSRTC buses 1,60,999 km in Telangana daily. Reddy added there has been no communication from the Telangana corporation on the number of buses it plans to run to Andhra Pradesh.
“However, they can operate services to AP as an MoU had been signed earlier, and relaxations in curfew guidelines to come into effect from Monday.” Passengers can reserve their tickets in advance from https://wwwapsrtconline.in, he added. The corporation, which resumed its online booking services from Sunday, also plans to operate 3,000 more buses within the state.