Bhubaneswar, April 3: Many tourists and daily passengers in the city will not have to sweat through this summer.

The city bus service has decided to introduce 12 air-conditioned buses that would ply on Airport-Nandankanan, Cuttack-Puri (via Bhubaneswar) and KIIT Square-Balakati routes.

Sixty more buses, including air-conditioned ones, will be added to the existing fleet of 118 buses plying between Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Puri. The state government has sanctioned Rs 20 crore to the state housing and urban development department for this purpose.

Bhubaneswar-Puri Transport Services Limited, the organisation that runs the city bus service, has been asked to procure these buses. The bidding process is to be completed by June.

Sources in the housing and urban development department said each AC bus would cost around Rs 40 lakh.

The AC buses will strengthen the tourism potential of the city, as most of them would ply on routes linked to tourist spots.

“Tourists can also visit Puri in these buses. A request for proposal has already been floated. The air-conditioned buses will not only be beneficial for the tourists, but also daily passengers,” said special secretary of the housing department S.K. Ratho.

Many cities including Calcutta, Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi, have air-conditioned buses that ply within the city limits. But they are being introduced for the first time in Odisha.

“As of now, we do not have exclusive AC buses plying from Cuttack-Bhubaneswar and Bhubaneswar-Puri. These buses are only for long-distance travel,” said general secretary of All Odisha Private Bus Owners’ Association Debendra Sahu.

Odisha Tourism Development Corporation runs two AC buses from Bhubaneswar and Puri on a daily basis.

The tourist bus from Bhubaneswar takes passengers to Konark and Puri whereas another bus takes tourists from Puri to Konark and Bhubaneswar.

A tourist has to pay Rs 350 for a single ticket.

While the fare for private AC buses has been fixed at 93 paise per kilometre, the fare of the city buses with AC will be decided after they are procured.

Passengers have welcomed the decision to introduce these buses, but said that the fare should be kept low so that they could afford the service.

“Most passengers of city bus service are daily passengers. So, a high fare will not be viable,” said passenger Hemant Samal.

At present, the city bus service covers 12 routes within Puri, Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.

Over 40,000 passengers depend on these buses every day.