300 special buses for Dasara

Vijayawada: The Krishna region of state-owned RTC will run 300 special buses during Dasara festival. Pilgrim rush will be heavy during the nine-day festival. The special buses will run to places like Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru, according to regional manager PV Rama Rao.

He told The Hans India that down traffic (buses coming to city) will be heavy from September 22. However, traffic to other places will be increased on September 27 and 28, he said.

When asked about the fare for special services, he said that 50 per cent extra of the fare would be charged. He further added that fare of the bus also depends on the nature of service such as Super Luxury and Express.

‘Passenger safety priority’

Passenger safety is the priority for RTC, the RM said. He cleared some doubts on the safety of passengers since the miraculous escape of over 50 passengers a fortnight ago when a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) bus caught fire. The bus was reduced to ashes within a few minutes of flames engulfing the bus. The incident has compelled the state-owned RTC to go for post-mortem on reasons as it is operating 300 CNG buses in Krishna district.

The teams from bus manufacturer (Ashok Leyland) and gas supplier (Bhagyanagar Gas Limited) came to conclusion that the buses should be provided with vent pipe. They found that gas was gushed out from burst disk and within minutes it spread all over the area. When the gas catches ignition, the fuel cyclinders started burning. The flames engulfed entire bus within a few minutes. The incident took place exactly at the New Govt Hospital bus stop in the morning hours.

According to the RTC official, the driver anticipated the danger as he heard the gas leakage and asked the passengers to alight the bus. It was just a few minutes gap between life and death for all the passengers who heaved a sigh of relief for escaping death.

The official further said that they have been in the process of fitting vent pipes to the burst disks as recommended by the expert team of the bus manufacturing company. It will take another few days to complete the technical alteration to the CNG buses, he said.

The CNG buses were introduced 10 years ago in the region. “There is no complaint with regard to the buses so far. The buses can be safely run for another five years,” he said.

While the total bus fleet strength was 1,400 in the region, 300 buses run on gas rather than on diesel. Every three years the buses will be sent for calibration to Hyderabad. After clearance to run them, they would be allowed on the roads, according to the official.

Each CNG bus carries 120 kgs of fuel (gas) in 11 cylinders accommodated with the bus. It may be noted that in another accident at Skew Bridge, an RTC bus (diesel-run) also caught fire in similar fashion after the front portion of the bus dashed against rear side of a truck one month ago. All the passengers hurried out to save their lives.