The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation will launch WiFi-enabled air-conditioned mini buses for IT employees in three corridors from the Raidurg metro station on Monday. Corporation chairman Bajireddy Goverdhan will flag off the buses at Cyber Towers in HiTech city at 4 p.m.
Ten non-stop buses branded as ‘Cyber Liner’ will be initially run between the metro station and GAR IT Hub at Kokapet, Waverock and Wipro from 7 a.m. to 12 noon, and 4 p.m. to 8.30 p.m. every day. The fare will be ₹40 up to GAR hub and ₹30 to the other two destinations.
RTC sources said the services were being introduced on an experimental basis and would be regularised with a larger fleet depending on the response.
The corporation had acquired 100 such mini buses seven years ago and operated them in the name of ‘Vajra’ on shorter routes. As the services did not click, they were deployed for long distance services. They did not work out even then due to technical issues. Sixty-eight buses were abandoned after they were found not road-worthy and left as scrap, sources added.
As the remaining 32 buses were found fit enough, it was decided to use them as a substitute for air-conditioned metro luxury buses which met with success in the IT corridor. The luxury buses were withdrawn due to poor occupancy after the introduction of metro rail services to IT corridor. However, it was found that the IT employees did not have road transport connectivity after disembarking from metro trains. To fill this gap, it was decided to introduce mini buses.
