RTC services between TS, AP from Nov 3

TSRTC will operate 1,61,258 route km in Andhra Pradesh with 826 buses while the APSRTC to operate 1,60,999 route km in Telangana with 638 buses

Hyderabad: At last, much-awaited inter-State bus services between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh will resume from midnight on Monday with the transport corporations of both the States ending the stalemate through an agreement.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that ends the face-off between the two corporations was signed by TSRTC Managing Director Sunil Sharma and his APSRTC counterpart Krishna Babu in the presence of Telangana Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar.

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As per the MoU, the TSRTC will operate 1,61,258 route km in Andhra Pradesh with 826 buses while the APSRTC to operate 1,60,999 route km in Telangana with 638 buses. The MoU came after a series of deliberations.

Ajay Kumar said the corporations had signed the pact on a parity basis. “Since the bifurcation of the APSRTC, we did not have a proper agreement on route km and bus operations for inter-State services,” he said. Sunil Sharma said the agreement was signed to not affect the revenue of both the corporations.

“RTC buses are the affordable mode of transport for the common man, and we do not want to create any inconvenience to them,” he said, adding that there were proposals for an agreement among all types of transport operators for running an equal number of route km between the two States.

Rs 2,000 cr loss to TSRTC this year

On the other hand, the TSRTC has incurred a revenue loss of Rs 2,000 crore so far this year due to the lockdown and the impact of Covid-19 on passenger occupancy in its buses.

According to Ajay Kumar, since the easing of the lockdown, the TSRTC has been operating buses for the convenience of people despite low occupancy. “People prefer to travel in personal vehicles in the wake of Covid-19, and this has been denting revenue of all State Road Transport Corporations,” he said.

The TSRTC used to earn Rs 12 crore a day but was now earning only around Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 3.5 crore a day, he said, adding that passenger occupancy would continue to be low till things returned to normal.

TSRTC officials said revenue would improve once the corporation resumed full-fledged operations and the public began travelling in buses.

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