RTC draws up plan to mop up lost funds

VIJAYAWADA: To cover the lost

revenue

due to the new inter-state agreement with Telangana, the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) is planning to reorganise bus services within the state.

The state-run corporation is estimated to lose Rs 260 crore in revenue per year due to the scaling down of its operations to Telangana. With the redeployment of surplus buses within the state, APSRTC hopes to mop up part of the lost revenue.

It may be recalled that APSRTC has reduced its operations in Telangana by one lakh kilometres because of which 372 buses across the state have become surplus. More than 90% of these buses used to run to Hyderabad. As the number of buses to Hyderabad have been reduced across all depots, officials are anticipating increased demand for the buses to Hyderabad.

With fewer buses running to Hyderabad, APSRTC officials are planning to make these services exclusive to only Hyderabad by reducing the number of halts within the state. K S Brahmananda Reddy, executive director of operations, said passengers going out of the state will only be given priority in buses travelling to Hyderabad.

“If a bus is starting from Kakinada to Hyderabad, there will not be any halts for that bus within the state and tickets will be issued in these buses to destinations in Telangana only. The surplus buses will be deployed in these long-distance routes for passengers travelling within the state,” Brahmananda Reddy said.

Earlier, a passenger travelling to Vijayawada from Kakinada could take a bus going to Hyderabad and get down at Vijayawada, which will not be possible now.

The RTC officials are also working out a strategy to readjust the frequency of buses within the state as well as for buses going out of the state to accommodate the passengers. They have already completed the exercise of redeployment of buses in six districts and are planning to complete the same in the other seven districts by next week.