Railways and RTC make good revenue during Lok Sabha election period

Special trains were run from the twin cities to Kakinada, Visakhapatnam, Narsapur, Nagarsol, Machilipatnam and other places.

Hyderabad: The recently concluded Lok Sabha elections seem to have yielded good revenue to the public transport sector. In view of the heavy passenger traffic during the elections, South Central Railway (SCR) operated 60 special trains between the two Telugu states from May 9 and May 15. These special trains recorded more than 100 per cent occupancy.

Special trains were run from the twin cities to Kakinada, Visakhapatnam, Narsapur, Nagarsol, Machilipatnam and other places. In addition to special trains, additional coaches were arranged for regular trains during the election.

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As per reports, from May 9 to 12, about 4.3 lakh passengers travelled in general compartments from railway stations like Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Kacheguda, Lingampalli etc., within the twin cities. An average of 1.05 lakh people travelled in general coaches from the twin cities every day. This is about 52 per cent more than the daily average of 68,800 unreserved passengers, railway officials said.

Special trains were also operated from twin cities to Khurda Road, Berhampur, Bengaluru, Sambalpur, Danapur, Gorakhpur, Agartala, Raxal, Udaipur, Cuttack, Santragachi, Kollam, Jaipur, Rajkot etc. About 41 additional coaches with AC-3 tier, sleeper class, general second class coaches and 40 daily trains have been attached to meet the additional traffic of passengers put on the waiting list.

TSRTC operated nearly 3,500 buses:

The TSRTC operated around 3,500 buses during the election period. Of this, 1,000 buses were operted to the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state. Apart from main bus stands like JBS, MGBS, special buses were operated from LB Nagar, Uppal, Kukatpally, Miyapur, Aramghar etc.

According to RTC officials, about 54 lakh people traveled in buses on May 13, fetching a revenue of Rs 24.2 crore to the corporation. Of this, while Rs 15 crore was earned from direct sale of tickets from general public, nearly Rs 9 crore worth ‘Zero Tickets’ were issued under the ‘Mahalakshmi’ free travel for women scheme. Government has to reimburse this amount to the RTC.