HYDERABAD: Here's music to the ears of harried bus commuters of the twin cities. Travelling in ordinary city buses crammed with people and reeking of sweat would soon be a pleasant experience if a proposal to introduce FM radio in them comes by.

With the FM boom on, a few FM radio channels have approached the APSRTC city region authorities with the proposal.

FM radio is already installed in Veera and Metro Express buses providing unlimited entertainment to passengers. With the plan to bring in the ordinary services into the FM bandwidth, passengers could well sing all the way to their destinations.

There are about 1,800 ordinary buses making 36,000 trips with a staggering 32 lakh people using them everyday.

Speaking to The Hindu, city Regional Manager C. Panduranga Murthy says there have been proposals from a couple of FM radio companies for providing services in the ordinary city buses.

Nearly 150 Metro buses and several Veera buses have FM radio equipment. "The response from passengers has been very good," he says.

On the advantages of installing FM radio in the buses, Mr. Murthy says besides providing entertainment to passengers, information on traffic jams and other civic issues can be aired which is beneficial to them.

Music to the ears

"Various civic issues can be communicated as it is the commonest of the commoners who use the ordinary services. It has the potential to be an entertaining as well as informative medium," he maintains.

Stating that the proposal is in the preliminary stages, he says extension of the radio service to ordinary buses rests with the corporate division of the RTC. "It may take some time," he says.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail