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TSRTC pitches for non A/C buses under FAME scheme
With the city air-conditioned buses of TSRTC not fetching enough revenues, the Corporation has urged the Centre to provide non A/C buses in the electrical bus scheme.
Hyderabad: With the city air-conditioned buses of TSRTC not fetching enough revenues, the Corporation has urged the Centre to provide non A/C buses in the electrical bus scheme.
According to senior official in the corporation, the TSRTC has sought 325 buses under the Central government's FAME (Fast Adoptable and Manufacturing of hybrid and electric vehicles) scheme.
However, the Centre had allocated 309 buses among the 4,500 odd buses given countrywide. Sources said that the occupancy ratio in the A/C buses has been low as the people chose the ordinary buses because of a higher ticket price.
"We had A/C buses like Volvo in the Metro Express category, but these buses have low occupancy ratio because people preferred ordinary buses as the fares were on a higher side.
Passengers often asked as to why they should pay Rs 30 or Rs 40 for a journey of half-an-hour," said a senior official. The occupancy ratio in these A/C buses is slightly more in the summer season but in other days it gets down, the official added.
Hyderabad was the first city in the country to have electric buses taken under FAME scheme when it got 40 buses, and these are now being run on the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport route from different places in the city.
The official said that the electric buses would serve two purposes as it would cut down the diesel consumption and also help in reducing the emission levels. The bus would run for 300 kms once it is charged.
Though the charging is capable of running till 400 kms but the road conditions and traffic in the city would limit it to 300 km per full charge. The corporation had also provided charging facilities at two depots including Miyapur and Cantonment.
It would take at least four and half hour for getting the buses to get fully charged. The official said it would take at least one year for the buses to come on road and all these would be utilised in Hyderabad.
"We are expecting the charges would be little less as we have asked for non A/C buses," said the official.
