Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator VP Singh Badnore on Friday flagged off 31 HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) long route buses at ISBT, Sector 17 here.
“These 31 HVAC buses will ply on long routes to Shimla, Manali, Dehradoon, Amritsar, Hissar, Haridwar, Delhi, Hansi, Harmirpur, Jawala Ji, Baijnath,” a spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said that these buses have latest technology, panic button for women safety and electronically controlled diesel engines. All buses are equipped with cameras, LED Destination boards, and GPS Devices for tracking of buses in real time. Each row of seat is equipped with reading lights, mobile charging points, A.C. Louvers among other facilities.
For the first time, the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) has introduced the panic button in these 31 HVAC long route buses to ensure the security of women passengers. Once a passenger presses the alert button, the Transport Department and the Police Control Room will be alerted and a message will be sent to control room, mentioning the bus registration number and its location, he added. The total cost of each HVAC bus is Rs 50 lakh. A cost of total 40 HVAC buses procured is Rs 20 crores and the fare of HVAC bus is approximately 44 percent lesser than super luxury bus, the spokespersons said.
Notably, Chandigarh Transport Undertaking is operating 128 inter-state buses on 51 routes in adjoining states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, Uttar Pradesh and National Capital Delhi.
The Department aims to replace old fleet of ordinary buses with 120 HVAC buses in three phases. The first phase of 40 HVAC buses has been ordered wherein 37 HVAC buses are already operating on routes. In the second phase of 40 HVAC buses, 31 buses have been flagged off on Friday, the spokesperson added.