Bringing tough competition in the inter-State bus service sector, the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has entered the fray with luxury air-conditioned Volvo sleeper class buses under its new subsidiary firm SWIFT.
The much-awaited bus that conforms to Euro-VI emission norms joined the fleet of premium buses of KSRTC-SWIFT, a new company floated by the Corporation for long-distance services, on Saturday.
The Corporation has booked eight AC Volvo sleeper buses for holding long-distance services under SWIFT, and the first of the lot was delivered at the SWIFT headquarters at Anayara, Thiruvananthapuram. The Corporation had booked as many as 100 buses in different categories at a cost of ₹44.84 crore after the State government sanctioned ₹50 crore for purchasing buses in the modern range as part of the KSRTC’s revival package.
Features
Each bus delivered by V E Commercial Vehicles Private Limited (Volvo) costs ₹1.38 crore. The specially designed buses, fuelled by an 11-litre engine with 430 HP power, provides a comfortable travel experience to 40 passengers in total in berths.
Further, 20 Ashok Leyland luxury buses booked by the Corporation will be delivered soon. The bus, worth ₹47.12 lakh each with 41 reclining seats, will have a seating capacity of 41 passengers.
The new company has also placed an order for 72 non-AC deluxe buses of Ashok Leyland to replace the long-distance buses that have completed their tenure.
All these buses will have the safety features prescribed by the Centre, i.e. manufacturing bus bodies adhering to AIS 052 (the new bus body code specified by the Centre). Considering the safety of passengers, all these buses will have dual camera and vehicle location-tracking devices.
