RTC to roll out Karimnagar buses

Karimnagar is undergoing a rapid growth with the mushrooming of educational institutions, offices and residential colonies on the city’s outskirts. But, citizens, students and employees residing on the its outskirts are facing sever hardships in reaching their destinations due to the poor transport network. However, with the city buses scheduled to ply on the city roads shortly, the hardships of the commuters will be put to an end.

JNNURM buses are equipped with the Intelligent Transport System (ITS) in order to enable authorities to monitor the movement of the buses. Every bus has a radio frequency antenna which helps officials to track its movement and its arrival and departure time. These modern buses would be operated on the identified routes with a frequency of 10 minutes. The then Karimnagar MP Ponnam Prabhakar sought the UPA-led Union government to sanction city buses to Karimnagar, under JNNURM, considering the dearth of public transportation facilities, in 2013.

Accordingly, the Union government granted 50 buses to Karimnagar and 20 to Ramagundam city. Centre released funds of its 50 per cent of share for purchasing buses and construction of exclusive bus stations for this new fleet. A sum of 20 per cent of cost is borne by state government and RTC shares the remaining 30 percent of expenditure.