AMTS will ply on all its 149 routes, BRTS on 13 from Thursday

AHMEDABAD: With the Metro rail services getting back on track, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has now decided to resume AMTS and BRTS services at 50% of seating capacity from Thursday on most routes. All passengers will have to use sanitizers and wear masks and none will be allowed to stand in the buses.
Atul Bhavsar, chairman of the AMTS said from Thursday, 650 AMTS buses and over 200 BRT buses will start plying on city roads. During the lockdown, only 355 AMTS buses had serviced 77 routes, but Thursday onwards buses will ply on all 149 routes, said Bhavsar.
BRTS will run 205 buses on its 13 routes from Thursday, whereas during the lockdown they had serviced only eight routes with 77 buses, Bhavsar added.
The daily revenue of AMTS has dropped fro pre-Covid Rs 24 lakh to just Rs 5 lakh after lockdown. Bhavsar said daily passenger load of AMTS has dropped to 55k, and the buses are losing out on long-distance traffic as they are still not crossing city bridges .
He said passenger numbers are expected to increase with all routes becoming operational, and as passengers will be able to change buses from Kalupur and Lal Darwaza.
AMTS officers said passengers are still reluctant to travel in buses. “When we resumed services the daily passenger count was 50k, and it hasn’t grown beyond 55k till now. BRTS’s daily passenger count has dropped from pre-Covid 1.5 lakh to just 30k.
BRTS’s daily revenue has dropped to Rs 3.5 lakh,” an officer said.