The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) will resume bus services to Karnataka from June 17 (Wednesday). “The online reservations of tickets will start on Monday (June 15). We are planning to operate 500 buses to Karnataka in four phases.
First phase
In the first phase that starts on Wednesday, we will ply 168 buses and most of them are from Anantapur, Chittoor and Kurnool,” said RTC Executive Director (Operations) K.S. Brahmananda Reddy.
Mr. Reddy said of the 168 buses, 60 would operate between Anantapur, Hindur, Kadiri, Puttaparthi, Tadipatri, Kalyandurgam and Rayadurgam and Karnataka; 30 buses between Tirupati, Chittoor, Madanapalle and Srikalahasti and Karnataka; 20 from Kurnool, Nandyal, Adoni and Mantralayam to the districts of Karnataka; 16 from Nellore and Kavali to the neighbouring State; 12 from Kadapa, Proddutur and Pulivendula to Karnataka; 10 each from Ongole, Addanki and Markapur and Vijayawada, Gudiwada and Machilipatnam; four each from Guntur, Narsaraopet and Kakinada and two from Eluru.
Sample testing
“The buses will operate as per the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs.Swab samples of 5 % of the passengers arriving from Karnataka from every bus will be collected and sent for testing,” he added.
After a prolonged lockdown, the APSRTC is resuming the inter-State services. There is high demand for RTC buses to Chennai and Hyderabad as well. But the government is awaiting response from its Tamil Nadu and Telangana counterparts for operating the buses.
