TSRTC tweaks bus seating for more space

With women travellers turning up in large numbers, the TSRTC has removed the grills in many buses that were earlier fixed to separate women and men travelling in buses.

Hyderabad: To accommodate more passengers and not just women travellers whose numbers have risen massively under the Mahalakshmi scheme and also to ensure revenue is generated, the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) has made adjustments to create more room in its buses.

With women travellers turning up in large numbers, the TSRTC has removed the grills in many buses that were earlier fixed to separate women and men travelling in buses. Instead, new seats were fixed in those places for the convenience of passengers.

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The RTC will also reinstall 45 seats in each bus by doing away with the grills, which will make a lot of room for more passengers. Recently, 3,200 seats were added to 800 buses.

According to officials, efforts are on to add close to 5,000 seats in 1,300 buses by removing grills permanently. This means, there will still be a place for 5,000 more passengers to travel in buses.

RTC officials are selecting new and less travelled or damaged buses like the Palle Velugu or Deluxe Express buses to make such changes. Apart from this, on a pilot basis, it has made changes in the seating arrangements of a few buses on the lines of metro trains.

The corporation has taken a crucial decision to have metro-style seating in buses plying in the Hyderabad region.

City buses are mostly crowded with people going to offices and colleges in the morning and evening. Mondays and Wednesdays become more crowded. RTC believes that more seats will allow more people to travel on the same bus. Officials say that if some seats are removed, there will be a chance for more people.

If the six seats in the middle of the bus are removed and seating is arranged on both sides like in the metro train, it will be easier for more people to travel in the space in the middle of the bus.

There are currently 44 seats in city buses. If only 63 people travel in each bus, RTC concludes it to be 100 per cent occupancy. If the six seats in the middle of the bus are removed, the total seating capacity of 12 persons will be lost. In that place, five seats on both sides like metro trains are being arranged.

The seating of buses on some routes has been changed on an experimental basis. If this policy is successful, it will be implemented in other places as well.