APSRTC to use bio-diesel

Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) has issued a notification to procure biodiesel through open tenders, according to a release issued here on Thursday.

All depots in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh would operate buses using biodiesel on a large scale, the APSRTC release said. The move is aimed at cutting down mounting fuel expenditure and conserving the environment. Presently, APSRTC consumes 50 crore litres of high speed diesel per annum and replacing 10 per cent of it with biodiesel would save around Rs 30 crore per annum, the release said.

The State Road Transport Corporation (Telangana and Andhra Pradesh) spent Rs 2,367 crore on high speed diesel alone during the Financial Year 2013-14 and increasing prices of high speed diesel had become a heavy burden, the release said.

The APSRTC had used biodiesel in 19 depots on an experimental basis from 2008 to 2010, but biodiesel manufacturers were not ready to supply it to the APSRTC at economically viable prices due to high prices of raw material and escalation in production costs.