State transport body to add 25 AC buses

Your journeys to Bangalore and Aurangabad will become more comfortable as the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) will soon add will add 25 new air-conditioned Volvo buses from February.

Your journeys to Bangalore and Aurangabad will become more comfortable as the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) will soon add will add 25 new air-conditioned Volvo buses from February.

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They will also launch a new bus called Jumbo, a 53-seater multi-axle bus that will be a semi-sleeper with more legroom. “We will introduce two Jumbo buses on the Mumbai-Pune-Bangalore route,” said Deepak Kapoor, managing director, MSRTC.

The bus will be bought at a cost of Rs 90 lakh, while passengers will be charged around Rs 1,100 per seat. The Jumbo buses will start from Dadar, and will continue to Bangalore with a 45 minute halt at Pune.

“The first Jumbo bus will interconnect three major cities while the second one will have a route dedicated to Pune-Bangalore,” said an official from MSRTC on condition of anonymity. The officials are also looking at having a distinct colour for these buses that shall be finalised by January-end.

The remaining 23 buses with 45-seats each will be bought gradually and some of the routes they will be plied on are Mumbai-Aurangabad, Mumbai-Pune, Thane-Pune, Nasik-Pune. The fare on the Mumbai-Pune route is Rs 260 per seat. The officials expect to add all the 25 buses to their fleet by May 2011.

The frequency of AC buses will be every 15 minutes starting from Dadar after the additions to the fleet are made. The buses connect seven different states like Karnataka, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Gujarat.