Bhubaneswar: The 50th Board Meeting of Capital Region Urban Transport (CRUT), marking a significant milestone in Odisha’s journey toward sustainable mobility, was held on Thursday under the chairpersonship of Anu Garg, Development Commissioner-cum-Additional Chief Secretary, Odisha & Chairperson, CRUT.
The Board of Directors reviewed CRUT’s operations and discussed key strategies to enhance urban transportation in the state, with a strong emphasis on safety, service quality and expansion.
Among others, Usha Padhee, Principal Secretary, H&UD Department & Vice-Chairperson, CRUT, Sanjeeb Kumar Mishra, Principal Secretary, Finance Department, Amitabh Thakur, Transport Commissioner, S. Dev Datta Singh, Commissioner of Police, Dr. Satyajit Naik, D.I.G. of Police, Central Range, Cuttack, and Dr. N. Thirumala Naik, Managing Director, CRUT were present in the meeting.
Currently serving more than three lakhs commuters daily, CRUT has created a highly accessible public transit ecosystem with its fleet of 670 Ama Buses including 290 e-Buses with a network of 1399 km, having nearly 2099 bus stops, across 115 routes.
CRUT has made significant strides in its digital transformation journey to ease commuter travel, from introduction of the Ama Bus App, ATVMs, Ama Bus Card to the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) for Odisha, along with WhatsApp-based ticketing and digital discounts of 10% for all commuters and 15% for women; currently, 32% of transactions are digital.
Fleet Expansion: Deployment of electric buses across six cities Keonjhar, Baripada, Angul and Jharsuguda, Berhampur and Sambalpur. All the new buses will be equipped with inbuilt Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) to enhance commuter safety.
Infrastructure Development: Construction of a state-of-the-art electric depot at Samanga, Puri to ensure smooth operations of buses in the pilgrim city.
Safety & training: With commuter safety as the top priority, 882 Captains have been trained between March-August 2025, with further training of new Captains underway in batches at HMV Driver Training Institutes in Odisha.
Odisha Yatri: The ride-hailing service with 2,73,631 registered users, 13,361 enabled drivers, and 3,69,922 completed trips, has now expanded its services to include online booking for Ama Bus tickets and ferry services in coastal areas such as Chilika.
Alternate non-fare box revenue sources to be explored to boost CRUT’s revenue.
