Luxury Volvo buses, which are plying between Jaipur and Delhi, running into heavy losses

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan State Roadways Transport Corporation (RSRTC) is going to procure 48 electric buses and is expecting to get the prototype of the bus by the end of March. After suggesting modifications and requirements, the final fleet of buses is expected by July 2020.

Out of the 48 buses to be bought by the corporation, 22 would ply on the Jaipur-Delhi route so that these buses will operate between Sindhi Camp (Jaipur) to Bikaner House (New Delhi). According to the sources from the RSRTC, the ongoing route of the super luxury buses run on diesel is becoming lesser popular as passengers between Jaipur to Delhi don’t want Kashmiri gate to be their halt in Delhi.

“We are likely to get the prototype of the buses by March. After completing the tender process a letter of intent has also been given to the company which had fulfilled the requirement of the tenders. We will further suggest modifications and requirement after seeing the sample. Thereafter, we will get 48 buses out of which 22 of these buses would be operated on the Jaipur-Delhi route. This will enable us to operate between Jaipur(Sindhi Camp) to New Delhi(Bikaner House) after getting the required permissions,” said UD Khan, managing director, RSRTC told TOI on Saturday.

Khan added that these buses would be environment friendly and passengers would be having a comfortable journey while travelling in these buses. “We are also planning to have CCTV camera in these buses and would be connected to the main server at the Sindhi camp bus stand for the safety and security of the passengers,” Khan added.

According to the officials the electric bus will be equipped with two batteries. Each fully-charged battery will be enough to run the buses for 200 km. On the routes, battery charging facilities would be available in the depots so that during halt time these batteries are fully charged.

Electric buses are currently plying in Delhi, UP and Himachal Pradesh. Rajasthan will be the fourth state to use electric buses for public transport.

