Low Floor Buses To Suburban Towns Soon

Kerala state road transport corporation (KSRTC) is planning to extend its Low floor city services to the suburban areas in Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam.

Presently the low floor buses running in both Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam is allowed to run only in the city limits of Trivandrum Development Authority (TRIDA) in Thiruvananthapuram and Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) in Cochin.

According to KSRTC, services running under this scheme are in loss. So the extension of services to rural areas helps them to  minimize the loss of this services. Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) is an incentive to cities and states across the country to implement modern bus systems, in particular the Bus Rapid Transit System. The main aim behind this scheme is to encourage the Public Transportation System in Cities and thus by reducing the usage of private vehicles to the city areas. Jnnurm buses are offering good quality and comfort for travel in cities.

To achieve this goals, the services of low floor buses should expand to the suburban areas like Nedumangad, Neyyattinkara, Attingal in Thiruvananthapuram and Piravam, Kolencherry, Moovattupuzha, Cherthala in Ernakulam. This also reduces the usage of Super class buses for getting down at the places like Thuravoor, Attingal etc.

Extension of these buses to the above mentioned areas will increase the collection also. At present 41 Low floor buses are operating in Kochi and 16 in Thiruvananthapuram. Besides, as many as 40 Low floor buses including Volvo buses are kept ready to roll out at the KSRTC Central workshop. Under the JNNURM project, 150 low- floor buses (30 A/C and 120 non-A/C) have been sanctioned for Thiruvananthapuram, whereas 170 buses, including 50 A/C buses, have been allotted to Kochi.