| Announcing this at a news conference here on Tuesday, Karnataka's transport minister C Cheluvarayaswamy said KSRTC already owned 111 Volvo buses. "Another 39 buses will be acquired in three months to increase the fleet strength to 150. Similarly, BMTC has placed orders for 43 Volvo intra-city coaches to enhance its fleet capacity to 50 from the existing seven," he added. |
| "The North West Karnataka Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) has seven Volvo buses. With the acquisition of 82 more buses, the number of Volvo buses owned by the state transport undertaking will cross 200. It will make us the largest owner of this brand of buses in the country. At present, more than 1,000 Volvo buses are in operation in the country," the minister explained. |
| He said the move to acquire more Volvo buses was prompted by the increasing popularity of the service. "The Volvo bus service has been branded as 'Airavata', which operate on long distance and inter-state routes. The occupancy rate is close to 100 per cent at any given time. The returns are impressive. This has prompted us to introduce the 'Airavata' service on more routes," he stated. |
| The government has also proposed a hike in bus fares. "The hike will be between 5 per cent and 7 per cent. It has been more than a year since bus fares were revised. Now we are forced to hike the fare as the price of diesel has been raised thrice in the last one year. The combined financial implication on all the four transport corporations owing to diesel price hike was Rs 78 crore last year. They cannot continue to bear this additional burden," Cheluvarayaswamy stated. |
| The government has also tentatively decided to offer 25 per cent discount on bus fares to senior citizens (65 years and above). "A final decision on the bus fare hike and the discount for senior citizens will be taken at the next Cabinet meeting," he added. |
Top Section
Explore Business Standard