Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, June 29: The Orissa State Road Transport Corporation (OSRTC) is all set to roll out its premium bus service ‘Airabata’ August 1.
Trial run of the bus will begin this July to finalise routes and timings.
“Our premium service ‘Airabata’ with Volvo and Scania buses will commence August 1. Trial runs will commence in July to finalise routes and timings,” tweeted @transportOdisha, the official twitter handle of the Corporation.
OSRTC deputy general manager (Technical) DK Upadhyay said the Corporation is planning to put one Volvo and one Scania bus (45 seated) on an experimental basis on Cuttak-Puri-Bhubaneswar route during the Rath Yatra.
“After finalisation of routes and timing, Scania buses will be made operational on airport-Bhubaneswar-Cuttack and airport-Puri routes, while the Volvo buses will roll on long routes across the state,” said Upadyay to this newspaper.
The fare of Volvo and Scania buses has remained 80 paise to `2 per kilometre in some states, and a fare in this range will be fixed for Orissa, said OSRTC sources.
A meeting of OSRTC and concerned stakeholders is scheduled to take place Thursday on operation of ‘Airabata’ service and its trial run. Accordingly, fare structure, passengers and number of Volvo and Scania buses to be hired for the luxury service will be hammered out.
According to sources, the meeting on ‘revival of the Corporation’, chaired by Chief Secretary AP Padhi June 9, decided to introduce ‘Airabata’ service with 12 premium buses initially.
The meeting had decided to grant Rs 20crore to the Corporation annually under its ‘revival plan’ for its modernisation.
As per the plan, 30 per cent of new buses will be AC deluxe buses.