In this Covid-19 lockdown, the transport sector was badly hit. Respective state’s RTCs have incurred huge losses and even after the lockdown is lifted, people are not preferring to travel in RTC due to fear of virus. This is when APSRTC has stepped up and has come up with new ideas to provide more service to people and make revenue.
One among the new initiatives is converting RTC buses into mobile Covid-19 testing labs. For this the air-conditioned buses were used as they were lying idle for months. About 52 Indra buses have been modified into mobile Covid-19 testing labs and they are being sent to rural parts of AP to do more testing. AP transport minister Perni Nani has named these buses as ‘Sanjivini’ and every district would get four of them.
Andhra Pradesh is leading from the front in Covid-19 testing and it also achieved a milestone of conducting ten million Covid-19 tests. Now that the influence of Covid-19 is quite high in the state with the cases on the spike, the AP government and RTC management has decided to use these Sanjivini buses.
Compared to the private labs, the Covid-19 tests in Sanjivini buses are completely free of cost which is a great thing.
All in all, APSRTC has come up with a timely initiative and hope other states’ RTCs take inspiration from it.
Tags ANdhra Pradesh APSRTC Buses Covid-19