Volvo Buses has supplied the first lot of its Volvo 8400 city buses (UBS II) to the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) and the Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT), the company said in a statement today.

While 18 units were delivered to the APSRTC, 30 units were delivered to NMMT as part of the fleet augmentation process. These deliveries follow that of orders from Pondicherry and Solapur in June, the first time that Volvo Buses will ply in these locations.

The company is supplying these city buses under the recent Urban Bus Specification (UBS) scheme to state transport undertakings. The new Volvo 8400 city bus, the company says, comes with several new features and aims to enhance standards in safety, passenger convenience and comfort. This includes features such as rear under-run protection; lateral protection; wider wheel chair ramps; walking stick/crutch holders for passengers with special needs; new high-comfort seats with headrest and greater reclining; automatic fire detection and suppression system in the engine area and finally on-board telematics.

The Volvo city bus was introduced in Bangalore in 2006; currently 1,200 Volvo city buses ply across 15 cities in India. Volvo brand buses have been in the news last February when a bus in Andhra Pradesh caught fire after hitting a culvert in the road and 40 passengers were killed. An investigation reportedly found that apart from road conditions, the bus design was also found be a likely cause, a charge Volvo has denied.

A government-appointed committee under NATRiP has suggested that bus manufacturers look for ways to minimise the impact of such accidents by attempting to design fuel tanks in the centre of the bus and not on the side, and also easily accessible emergency exits.