TSRTC will not be privatised at any cost: Puvvada

Addressing RTC passengers, senior officials and other department personnel, the Minister condemned allegations made by some BJP leaders that the Corporation will be privatized soon.

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) will not be privatised at any cost, State Transport Minister, Puvvada Ajay Kumar, during the launch of ‘Ziva’, the Corporation’s in-house packaged drinking water bottles at MGBS in Hyderabad on Monday, said.

Addressing RTC passengers, senior officials and other department personnel, the Minister condemned allegations made by some BJP leaders that the Corporation will be privatized soon.

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“While the BJP-led Central government is busy privatising all major PSUs in the country, the Telangana government chose to go the other way by focussing on rejuvenating the RTC so that it regains its lost glory,” Minister said.

Three years ago, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had decided not to privatize TSRTC, but revamp it from the ground-up and make it profitable. Unlike 2 or 3 bus depots that were in profits earlier, now at least 25 RTC bus depots are running on profits. Hopefully, other depots too will follow suit in the coming days, the Minister pointed out.

The Transport Minister said that at present, on an average, the RTC suffers loss of about Rs.4 crore on a daily basis. The hike of fuel prices under the central government has only worsened the financial situation, as the Corporation requires between 6-7 lakh litres of diesel worth Rs.2.5 crore to operate its bus fleet daily.

Appreciating the efforts of TSRTC, Chairman, Bajireddy Govardhan and Managing Director, VC Sajjanar in developing ‘Ziva’ water bottles, Ajay Kumar said that earlier, every year the Corporation was shelling out several lakhs to source nearly Rs.90 lakh water bottles from private water companies.

But now, the RTC has its own brand of water which would be given free of cost to passengers traveling in AC services and put up for sale at stalls across bus stations in the State soon, he said.