Over 1,000 new buses would be added to the fleet of state-owned APSRTC by March 2015, Andra Pradesh Transport Minister Sidda Raghava Rao said today.
Ruling out reports of privatisation of the loss-making Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC), the minister told reporters here that the government is determined to strengthen the APSRTC.
He said 1,080 new buses will be inducted into the existing fleet of over 12,000 by March 2015. “Already 80 new buses have been added.”
Out of the over 1,000 new buses, the APSRTC would get 350 new buses under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), while 150 will be purchased from its own finances and remaining will be added through hired and other avenues.
“The APSRTC has accumulated losses to the tune of Rs 2,800 crore. We want to make it a profit-making one,” Rao said adding over 54 lakh passengers travel in APRTC buses per day.
To bring down the losses, APSRTC will ply buses on bio-diesel and tenders will be shortly called for supply of the bio-fuel, he said.
Proposals are underway to give bus station sites under build-operate-transfer (BOT)-at Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Tirupati on lease to build multiplexes and shopping malls to earn additional revenue to the corporation, the minister said.
In order to ensure safety of passengers, Rao said a meeting of Transport and Police department would be shortly held in Vijayawada which will discuss measures to be taken to reduce the accidents and also to check illicit operations by private bus operators.
There are plans to set up mineral water bottling plants to provide bottled water at affordable rates to passengers, he added.