Hyderabad: Much-touted Vajra buses up for grabs at scrap price

Hyderabad: The grandiose plans of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) to provide last mile connectivity by operating a/c mini buses fell flat and resulted in a loss of Rs 24 crore to the exchequer. They are now being sold as scrap.

Launching the buses in 2017, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had hailed it an innovative service and stated that these services would allow the passengers to board and alight the buses at their chosen location. He further claimed that such services were not available with any other road transport corporations in the country.

After their launch, the services even won National Public Transport Excellence Award under commuter-friendly initiatives and Skoch Award for the door-to-door service initiative. However, despite all these feats, they turned into white elephants for the Corporation.

According to TSRTC, the maintenance cost was more than the revenue generated. "Most of these buses, taken off the roads, have now become defective and dysfunctional," the officials said.

The Vajra buses were purchased with a cost of Rs 24 lakh each and non-functioning of air conditioners was the regular complaint of passengers. "As per the government circular, the city buses were to stop operating after 13 lakh km and district buses after 12 lakh km, but these Vajra buses were taken off the road even before covering 3 lakh km. This resulted in a financial loss of about Rs 24 crore to RTC," said M Nageswara Rao, RTC former Board Director, while urging the government to conduct an inquiry into the failure of much publicised Vajra buses.

The Telangana Jathiya Mazdoor Union (TJMU) General secretary, K Hanumanthu Mudiraj, said that the some of RTC buses which have crossed the maximum distance limit were still plying. He said it was a mystery as to why and how the Vajra buses became dysfunctional even though they did not run beyond 3 lakh km? A proper impartial probe should be conducted into it, he felt.