OSRTC’s ‘Rajdhani’ fleet to compete with private buses

Bhubaneswar: In a bid to bring its service standards at par with the private bus operators, the Odisha State Road Transport Corporation (OSRTC) is all set to roll out a fleet of luxury AC Deluxe busses branded as ‘Rajdhani.’ These busses are equipped with state-of-the-art creature comforts with modern seats, personalized lighting, and individual mobile charging points among others.

These air conditioned busses will be ply from Bhubaneswar to district headquarters and major cities of the Odisha. According to sources, in the first phase, 75 busses will be purchased by the Corporation.

Moreover, six new Volvo Busses will be added to the fleet out of which two are already running on Puri-Kolkata route, while the others will ply on Badbil-Kolkata and Bhubaneswar-Baripada routes.

“We are aiming to make the government bus service more safe and comfortable than the private bus service. The buses that we are bringing will be known as Rajdhani and will operate from Bhubaneswar to various district headquarters and other important places in Odisha,” said OSRTC CMD, Sudhanshu Sekhar Sadangi.

Currently, 373 busses of OSRTC are operating under 23 units which include Hi-Tech, Hi-Comf, AC Deluxe, and AC Sleeper category of busses. Many believe privately operated busses have been offering more comfort and better services, these existing busses have not been able to attract commuters. However, with the introduction of these new busses, officials believe that it will bring more business to the corporation.

“These busses will definitely attract commuters and it will be able to compete with private busses. It will be profitable for us,’ said an OSRTC employee, Surendra Kumar Sahoo.