The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) will resume its bus services to Karnataka from June 17 as it got a nod from the state government to carry out its operations. Tickets can be bought online from Monday and officials said that 500 buses will begin operations, in four phases.
On Wednesday, 168 bus services would resume, most of them starting from the districts bordering Karnataka like Kurnool, Chittoor and Anantapur.
Based on its success, buses will resume from the districts of Nellore, Kadapa, Prakasam, Krishna, Guntur and East Godavari.
Speaking to reporters, RTC Executive Director (Operations) KS Brahmananda Reddy said that all guidelines issued by the Centre would be followed, adding that swab samples of 5% of all passengers who arrive from Karnataka in each bus will be collected and tested, as a precautionary measure.
The APSRTC stopped its services in March after the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19.
The buses returned to the roads on May 21 after nearly two months.
However, the city bus services have not resumed in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam to check possible spread of the coronavirus.
At the time of resuming services, the state-owned corporation said that it had 12,000 buses, but only 1,683 buses were being operated on 436 routes, which would be gradually ramped up depending both on the occupancy in the buses, and the state's progress in containing the spread of COVID-19.
The Andhra Pradesh government has also sought permission to run buses to Hyderabad in Telangana and Chennai in Tamil Nadu, given the high demand from passengers, but is yet to receive the nod of the respective state governments.
Masks are compulsory to board the buses and passengers are being provided with hand sanitisers before boarding the vehicle. The seating has also been rearranged.
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