After six months the city buses in Hyderabad may once again hit the roads in the last week of this month.
The authorities of the TSRTC are getting ready to once again ply the city buses which have been off the roads since March 22, subject to government approval.
Office-going people, small-business owners, blue collar workers and students who cannot afford autos and private vehicles have been awaiting the return of the buses for a while, and this news is bound to make them happy.
Reports are that though the RTC employees are ready to offer services, the government is still to make up its mind. Sources however say that the government is actively considering relaunching the bus services in the last week of this month.
RTC officials are quoting studies they have reportedly done in other states which began city bus services recently - Maharashtra (Mumbai), Karnataka and Tamil Nadu - despite the coronavirus by operating according to a protocol, to claim that services can be run in a limited way.
RTC officials plan to run only about 50% of the buses in seven busy routes. These routes will include metro rail stations in main thoroughfares.
The plan is to extend services to the other routes after seeing the outcomes of the first phase of the relaunching and the public response.
There is also talk that the RTC may collect twice the normal charges as occupancy will be reduced by almost half to follow social distancing.