TSRTC to roll out more wheels in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh

Telangana State Road Transport Corporation apart from increasing its fleet in the State is also planning to roll more wheels in the neighboring States.

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) apart from increasing its fleet in the State is also planning to roll more wheels in the neighboring States.

The corporation, which recently held discussions with the RTC officials of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh States, is learnt to have decided to increase the number of bus services to these States.

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TSRTC Vice-Chairman and Managing Director VC Sajjanar, who recently held talks with the Karnataka State RTC officials in Bengaluru, is preparing proposals in this regard and is expected to take it forward soon.

As part of this, an exclusive plan is being prepared to run additional buses regularly for another 30,000 km in Karnataka. It was concluded that additional 100 buses are required for this purpose. This is expected to increase the daily income to Rs 25 lakh.

With good demand for RTC buses, particularly from the State, to places like Bengaluru, Mysore, Belgaum, Bijapur, Yadgir, Bidar, Raichur in Karnataka, the RTC is making all possible efforts to make utmost use of the demand.

Currently, TSRTC is plying about 500 buses to different parts of Karnataka. Their occupancy ratio is also high, officials said. The RTCs in Karnataka also run buses to various places including Hyderabad. They are also well received. In this regard, they mutually decided to increase the number of buses.

An agreement in this regard was signed in 2008 in the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh. No separate agreement was made with TSRTC after the separation of the State.

It is known that the TSRTC is buying 16 new AC sleeper buses. Another 108 non-AC sleeper buses are also being taken on rental basis. Some of these are to be earmarked for additional diversion services to Karnataka.

It is expected to rotate the fleet to areas like Bengaluru, Mysore and Raichur in particular, in view of high demand. A similar strategy is expected to be followed by the RTC to attract passengers from Andhra Pradesh as well.

At present there are no sleeper buses with the TSRTC and many people have to opt for private buses. RTC is losing huge revenue due to this. Now, with the decision, it hopes to turn those passengers towards itself with the new sleeper buses.