As per the scheduled plan, Bhagyanagar Gas company is supposed to supply CNG by February 2010. The gas will be supplied from Shamirpet using the Daughter Booster System (DBS), which has been adopted to supply CNG from Vijayawada to three petrol pumps in the city, to all the CNG buses in the first phase.

RTC officials told Expresso that after the gas reaches Shamirpet, the corporation will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bhagyanagar Gas Company on the quantum of gas supplies and the price of the gas. At present, CNG is supplied at Rs 35 per litre in Vijayawada where most of the RTC buses run on CNG.

IF everything goes as per the plan, the RTC plans to covert all its 3,000 buses plying in the Greater Hyderabad limits to run on CNG fuel in a phased manner. In the second phase, CNG will be made available directly at Hakimpet and Cantonment depots. With buses running on CNG, pollution levels in the city are expected to come down significantly.

A diesel bus can be converted to a CNG bus using specially-designed kits. The system can be adopted if the bus is manufactured in conformity with Euro-3 emission norms. But all existing city buses of the RTC are not Euro-3 compliant. It is learnt that non-Euro-3 vehicles will be phased out over a period of time.

“It is early to talk about conversion to CNG as we are yet to hold talks with Bhagyanagar Gas company on the nitty-gritty of the agreement,’’ APSRTC Executive Director Narayana Swamy says.