MSRTC buses to get an antimicrobial coating for 10,000 buses

31 Jul 2021 CW Team

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has decided to apply anti-microbial coating from the upcoming month to the 10,000 buses it deployed at present for Rs 9,500 per vehicle.

Antimicrobial coating is a process in which a chemical is sprayed over the surfaces to limit the increase of viruses, fungus, and bacteria.

The state officials informed that the chemical agents would be sprayed on the seats, windows, hand rest, driver's cabin, guard rails, floor, doors and luggage compartments.

In May, the tender for the antimicrobial coating work was rolled out. Two firms were finalised for starting the procedure from next week and completing it in a month.

According to the firms, the durability of the coating is two-six months each. They have to submit the certificates from Haffkine Institute to support their claims.

One firm would have to apply the coat twice a year, while the other would have to do it six times yearly, and a third party would examine the effectiveness by taking surface swabs to analyse viral load.

Before the Covid-19 outbreak, MSRTC used to transport an overall 65 lakh people daily and currently, the range is between 17-18 lakh.

At present, Maharashtra has a caseload of more than 62.90 lakh cases, including 1.32 lakh deaths.

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