MSRTC to add 60 buses to fleet

The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) plans to add 60 more buses to its existing fleet of 72. The transport body received five buses on Sunday and another 22 are expected in a month. By mid-June,the fleet of 60 will be ready. Of the 60 new buses,25 will be owned by MSRTC and another 35 will be on lease.

Among the new buses,two are multi-axle jumbo buses costing Rs 1 crore with a seating capacity of 53 under the MSRTC brand name of Ashwamedh. The Ashwamedh buses will run on Mumbai-Bangalore route via Pune and could be on the roads by next week. The rest are regular Shivneri Volvo buses with 45 seats costing Rs 80 lakh.

Deepak Kapoor,chairman and managing director,MSRTC,said,”There has been 37 per cent rise in air-conditioned bus passengers and 25 per cent rise in the semi-luxury category. We were unable to handle the load with the existing fleet,and hence the decision to expand.”

As of now,the buses make 65 trips a day from Pune to Dadar,20 between Borivli and Pune and Thane and Pune. In the Pune-Kolhapur and Pune-Sangli routes,there are six trips a day,while on the Pune-Aurangabad route there are 10 trips a day with the present fleet of 72 buses,that have been in operation for the last two to three years.