BENGALURU: While Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation is aiming to purchase new buses and add them to its fleet, it has tasked its bus depots to refurbish old buses. KSRTC MD Anbu Kumar told TNIE that nearly 500 buses that have clocked 10 lakh km have been refurbished now, and look brand new.
“The cost of a new bus is around Rs 40 lakh, but our staff are refurbishing old buses into a new avatar for just Rs 3 lakh,” he said. The bus corporation suffered heavy losses during Covid and is now recovering well. Due to the Covid impact, KSRTC was unable to purchase any new buses, and this idea of refurbishing old buses and bringing them in a brand new avatar struck. “For almost a year, we have refurbished nearly 500 old buses and the numbers are getting added every week,” Kumar said.
Explaining the criteria for selecting buses for refurbishment, Kumar said, “We choose buses that are around 10 years old and have clocked 10 lakh km or more. Once a bus is chosen, it is completely dismantled, except for the chassis. If the chassis is worn out, even that will be fixed and right from the seats to the windows, everything will be replaced. The exterior body will also be rebuilt and once painted, the refurbished bus is as good as a brand-new bus.”
He added that in a majority of the buses, the engine will be the same and if needed that will also be refurbished. However, once the buses complete 15 years on the road, they are decommissioned. This way the bus corporation is able to save crores of rupees and there is a competition among the bus depots to refurbish old buses, Kumar said.