Telangana home department has decided to beef up security for chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao by procuring a new bulletproof bus after Maoists threatened to target TRS leaders following the killing of 10 guerrillas in an encounter on the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border last week.

The bus, to be procured by the roads and buildings (R&B) department, will have state of the art facilities and new security features. It is estimated to cost about Rs 7 crore and the vehicle is to be used by the CM for touring the state.

The chief minister already has a bullet proof Mercedes Benz bus that was procured at a cost of Rs 4 crore three years ago.

The second bus will be an additional one with more security features and will be the primary bus for the CM with the older one kept as standby.

Official sources said the R&B department held a meeting with officials on Monday in the secretariat and decided to call for tenders for procuring the new bullet proof bus. A committee has been constituted with R&B principal secretary Sunil Sharma as its member secretary.
“The committee will look into all the required features of the new bullet and mine proof bus and will send the proposal to GAD for final approval. It would take a minimum two to three months to get the bus ready after finalizing the tenders,” a senior official of the transport department said.

While a helicopter will be the primary mode of transport for the elections, the CM will use the bullet-proof bus for extended stay in the districts.

Source : TOI