Hyderabad: A year after dropping the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) project, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has now decided to take it up on a pilot basis at the Miyapur- Chandanagar stretch. As per the new proposal the corporation will phase out all City RTC buses and deploy electric buses in their place. The BRTS routes would be exclusively for buses and ambulances.
According to a GHMC official, the state government is also contemplating creating a special purpose vehicle to fund the project in order to ease the burden on any other government agency. The BRTS route will provide city commuters with buses every 15 minutes at every specific point, and they will be monitored through a command control room. The BRTS will have physically separated bus lanes and enclosed ‘Metro-like’ stations. The fare collection system will include smart cards. BRTS may also be linked with the Hyderabad Metro Rail and a proposed mono rail in the city.
Originally, the corporation had proposed to take up the project to make the first BRTS corridor through Mehdipatnam-Gachibowli Crossroads-Financial District-Botanical Gardens-Kothaguda Crossroads and Miyapur. However, due to land acquisition problems, the corporation decided to ground the project on the Miyapur-Chandanagar stretch, where it requires minimal land and property acquisition. If the pilot project is successful, the corporation would create two BRTS corridors as per the original plan. The second corridor is proposed from Mehdipatnam-Malaysian Township and JNTU. It was envisaged for the use of Volvo buses.
Meanwhile, to take up the BRTS project as per original plan, the corporation would have to acquire at least 10,000 properties across the city.
