COVID-19: Bus services resume in Hyderabad after 6 months

Hyderabad: After a gap of six months public transport buses today returned to the roads of Hyderabad bringing a semblance of normalcy and providing much needed relief to commuters.

State government decided to resume the city bus service of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation in view of the improvement in COVID-19 pandemic situation in Hyderabad where number of infections has come down.

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“As a first step we have restored about 25% of our services in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. As the situation improves further we will increase the number of buses”, state transport minister P Ajay told the media.

Bus service in the entire state had come to a halt with the imposition of total lockdown on March 22 in view of the pandemic.

Long distance travel

Earlier this month the state government restored the Hyderabad Metro rail service with certain conditions and now the partial restoration of city buses, people have heaved a sigh of relief. In the absence of the buses, the most common mode of transport for the masses, traffic on the roads was running thin and the people were avoiding long distance travel.

While the inter district bus service was restored a couple of months ago, resumption of city bus service was delayed to avoid rush and possibility of mass spread of Corona virus. Along with the city buses, the state government also resumed the bus service to the other neighboring states of Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Transport minister said that of the total 2,900 RTC buses in Greater Hyderabad, 650 buses plied on Friday. “We have taken all the necessary precautions and ensuring social distancing in the buses”, he added.

The resumption of bus services was expected to help in further improving the situation as common people specially the daily wage labourers and workers will be able to travel long distance to attend their duties.

Meanwhile Telangana recorded 2,381 new positive cases of Corona with only 306 cases in the limits of Hyderabad. With this the tally of Corona cases has gone up to 181,627. According to the medical bulletin of the state government the state recorded ten deaths during last 24 hours. The total toll in the state now stands at 1,070.

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