Free bus scheme: Metro-type seating in Hyderabad city buses to accommodate more passengers

HYDERABAD: With the implementation of free bus service for women passengers in TSRTC under the ‘Mahalakshmi’ scheme the footfall increased from 11 lakh per day to 18-20 lakh.

To accommodate more and more passengers and also give the conductor ample room to move around and issue tickets, the TSRTC Greater Hyderabad zone decided to try Metro model seating in their city buses.

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According to Venkateswarlu, executive director, of TSRTC Greater Hyderabad zone, six seats would be removed from the middle section of these buses which earlier accommodated 12 passengers but left less space for passengers to stand.

“We will have five seats arranged on either side that will again let 10 passengers sit but more people to stand in the open space,” he said adding that initially this model would be applied to routes that attract heavy traffic.

As per the existing seating arrangement, there were 44 seats and a footfall of 63 passengers was considered as 100 percent accuracy. The number of women passengers almost doubled after the free scheme. With this, the pressure on bus conductors also doubled to check the ID cards and issue zero-charge tickets.