CHENNAI: To ensure hassle free travel of differently abled passengers across the state, Transport Minister SS Sivasankar on Monday announced that the state government has placed a procurement order to purchase 150 fully built low-floor buses at a cost of Rs 135.48 crore.

The new buses are being procured with the assistance of the state government, the minister said in a statement.

The low floor buses would be operated in the town routes for the benefit of differently abled passengers.

Out of the 150 buses, TNSTC Kumbakonam would get a share of 38 buses, 33 buses for Madurai, Villupuram (26) Coimbatore (20), Tirunelveli (17) and Salem (16).

It may be noted that orders have already been placed for procurement of 552 low-floor buses including 352 buses for MTC through the KfW funding of Rs 500.97 crore.

Apart from MTC, the TNSTC Madurai and Coimbatore was allotted 100 buses each.