APSRTC has procured record number of buses in 2011-12: Rao

Hyderabad, Mar 30 : The state-owned Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) had procured about 4,000 buses for fabrication of different types of bus bodies in 2011-12, its Vice-Chairman and Managing Director B Prasada Rao said .


Mr Rao told reporters here that the buses were procured at a cost of Rs 800 crore. The state government had provided a financial assistance of Rs 200 crore in the budget for the purpose of replacement of over aged vehicles.

Mr Rao said normally the Corporation procured about 2,000 vehicles in a year and purchasing 4,000 vehices was a record in the history of its 80 years of existence.

The APSRTC had introduced the latest high end model Luxury Buses in the light of competition in that segment and for the better comfort of the passengers, the Managing Director said, adding the latest models introduced by APSRTC in the year 2011-12 were Indra AC buses, Volvo Multi axle, Mercedes Benz multi axle, SML ISUZU sleeper luxury coaches besides introducing CNG buses in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, Vijayawada to avoid pollution.

He said out of 4,000 vehicles, a total of 878 buses had been deployed for augmentation and the remaining 3,120 vehicles were inducted towards replacement of old vehicles.

Mr Rao also said during the financial year 2011-12, three new AC products were introduced with brand names Vennela (AC sleeper), Garuda Plus (Multi axle AC Bus) and Indra (AC buse) to meet the needs of travelling people.

Presently, Vennela Sleeper buses were under operation on


Hyderabad-Bangalore, 


Hyderabad-Shirdi, 


Kakinada-Hyderabad, 


Visakhapatnam-Tirupati, 


Visakhapatnam-Hyderabad, 


Tirupati-Hyderabad, 


Vijayawada-Hyderabad, 


Vijayawada-Bangalore and 


Vijayawada-Chennai (nine routes).

The Garuda Plus buses were under operation on :


Vijayawada-Bangalore, 


Vijayawada-Hyderabad, 


Hyderabad-Nagpur, 


Hyderabad-Mangalore, 


Hyderabad-Mysore, 


Hyderabad-Donomalai, 


Visakhapatnam-Bangalore, 


Visakhapatnam-Tirupati, 


Karimnagar-Tirupati, 


Nizamabad-Bangalore, 


Tirupati-Coimbatore, 


Tirupati-Mangalore, 


Kakinada-Bangalore and 


Guntur-Bangalore routes.