An ASTC low-floor Rhino bus being flagged off. File picture

Jorhat, Dec. 1: The services of the low-floor Rhino buses, introduced during the tenure of former transport minister Anjan Dutta to benefit the elderly, women and differently-abled people, is being completely terminated in Upper Assam.

ASTC sources told The Telegraph the services were being terminated because of high maintenance and repairing costs of spare parts.

The Rhino buses of the Assam State Transport Corporation were launched in Upper Assam in January 2006, exactly two years after it was introduced in the state capital.

The cost of a Rhino bus, manufactured by the Tata company, was over Rs 15 lakh at the time of procurement.

Four low-floor buses were plying from Jorhat to Sivasagar and had gained popularity among the local people because of comfort.

Soon after the Jorhat-Sivasagar services Dibrugarh-Tinsukia was launched but had to be grounded within a year as the vehicle developed technical snags and the repairing costs were very high.

Sources said the Jorhat-Sivasagar services were also stopped seven months back, as all the four buses had developed technical snags.

Repair of the buses was not economically viable for the PSU, as it was already running at a loss.

The ASTC had also incurred losses to the tune of Rs 6,473.85 lakh between financial years 2005-06 and 2009-10.

The engineering cost per km (maintenance cost) of a Rhino bus was about 40 per cent more than other buses. Sources said at present the maintenance cost of an ASTC bus was about Rs 2 while that of a Rhino bus nearly Rs 2.40.

Sources said normally an ASTC bus runs for eight years or 5 lakh km and is grounded when it fulfils either of the conditions. However, there are exceptions in some cases as some ASTC buses have run for 12 years.

In 2008, around 50 mini-buses named city ride were introduced by the ASTC on the Jorhat-Sivasagar route. But those were not able to substitute the comfort of Rhino buses.

Sources said the city ride buses were neither low-floor nor rear-engine driven and they were permitted to ply only on the outskirts of Jorhat and Sivasagar.