Luxury buses to ply on Nagpur roads

Luxury buses are set to ply on Nagpur roads offering inter-connectivity within its municipal limits.

The bus service will be started by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation, which has taken up the initiative with the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation Limited (MSRTC) following the latter's disinterest in operating city buses.

The MSRTC had run up huge losses in running the city bus service and proposed to restrict operations to certain key routes or shut them down completely.

The civic body then decided to step in and invited tenders for running the buses. Called 'Star City Buses' they will now be introduced on two major arterial routes in the city from this week.

Municipal commissioner Lokesh Chandra said the two routes had been finalised and the private bus operator had brought seven brand new buses to the city.

Orders for more buses have also been placed. The routes on which the buses will initially be run are Khapri Octroi Post (Wardha Road) to Kamptee Road Octroi Post and Pardi Octroi Post (Bhandara Road) to Wadi Octroi Post (Amravati Road).

NMC's traffic department applied to the regional transport office, Nagpur, on February 17 for the necessary permit to run the buses on 11 routes. However, the RTO asked NMC officials to file separate applications for all the eleven routes.

The Regional Traffic Authority, headed by Nagpur divisional commissioner Anand Limaye, will finalise the route permits. The commissioner also said NMC's Rs 128-crore bonds meant for funding its various projects taken up under JNNURM will be floated on February 26.