The Telangana government on Thursday gave its nod to the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) for resuming city bus services in Hyderabad.
State Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar announced on Thursday that 25% of the total 2,800 buses at 29 depots in Greater Hyderabad limits will resume operations depending on the situation.
The Minister directed authorities to take appropriate steps to ensure that the buses comply with COVID norms. The officials had already resumed suburban and mofussil buses to Hyderabad outskirts from Wednesday.
The decision was taken by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao after a meeting with Transport Minister P Ajay Kumar and senior officials.
The officials were busy finalising the routes on which the buses will be operated.
The decision came a day after the TSRTC resumed partial services on the outskirts of the city. The TSRTC on Wednesday resumed bus services on the outskirts of Hyderabad. Buses were operated from depots such as Rajender Nagar, Maheswaram, Ibrahimpatnam and Bandlaguda which are on the outskirts.
While bus services across the state resumed in May, the city services were not resumed in view of the high number of COVID-19 cases in the state capital.
The TSRTC buses went off the roads across Telangana on March 22. The services, except for city services in Hyderabad, were restored on May 19.
The TSRTC operates over 3,000 buses in the state and 1,400 buses in Hyderabad including the outskirts. Before COVID-19, these buses used to make 43,000 trips, transporting over 30 lakh passengers every day.
