Puducherry, Solapur get Volvo city buses

Puducherry and Solapur have become two new cities to opt for Volvo 8400 city buses for public transport. With this development, the presence of Volvo in the high-performance city bus segment in India has expanded to 15 cities. More cities are likely to opt for Volvo city buses by the end of the year.

Volvo is delivering the city buses under the recent Urban Bus Specification scheme to State Transport Undertakings. The aim of the scheme is to get people to move away from private cars and instead choose modern bus transport. This is expected to help reduce the number of vehicles on the road, which in turn is expected to reduce traffic congestion, fuel consumption per person per km and overall emissions.

The Volvo 8400 city bus is built to meet the Urban Bus Specifications and comes with a number of features that the company claims help to enhance safety and passenger convenience. These features include rear under-run protection, lateral protection, wheel chair ramps, walking stick and crutch holders, seats with headrests and greater reclining, automatic fire detection and suppression system in the engine area and on-board telematics for better passenger information systems.

Meanwhile, Kolkata has added to its fleet of Volvo city buses and by the end of the year, other cities that use these buses are expected to follow suit.