TSRTC to ply buses to AP, Karnataka & Maharashtra

Hyderabad: After a gap of more than one-and-a-half month, the TSRTC would be operating buses to Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka from Monday and towards Maharashtra from Tuesday as per the lockdown relaxations in those states.

During the lockdown, Telangana police stopped all vehicles coming from Andhra Pradesh on the grounds that the number of cases there was rising. But now even though the state registered over 6,000 new cases on Sunday, the government decided to operate inter-State buses.

The TSRTC bus services to Andhra Pradesh were cancelled from May 5 after lockdown restrictions were imposed in the state. According to the officials, they had taken the decision to operate buses since the Telangana government had lifted all restrictions and the Andhra Pradesh government had also relaxed the lockdown timings.

The buses to Andhra Pradesh would be operated between 7 am and 6 pm and there would be no night services. The Corporation operates 644 services to various towns of Andhra Pradesh.

Similarly, the buses towards Karnataka (except for Bengaluru) would be operated between 5 am and 7 pm from Monday to Friday in the wake of weekend curfew in the state. There will be no services from 7 pm on Friday to 5 am on Monday, the officials added. The Corporation generally operates 200 bus services to various towns of Karnataka.

Buses towards Maharashtra would be operated from Tuesday. The Corporation generally operates 131 bus services towards various towns of Maharashtra like Nagpur, Udgir, Sholapur, Mumbai, and other places.

Passengers can avail the online reservation services for their long-distance travel. The buses would be sanitized at the starting point and ending points and the passengers would be asked to follow the guidelines like wearing masks and applying sanitizers, officials said.