HYDERABAD: While plying along the Kukkatpally road in their rickety Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) bus, driver Bharani (name changed) and his conductor Shafeeq (name changed) are a team. They face it all together: the struggle of navigating through the pockmarked roads as well as manning an unfit bus for an hour or more beyond their duty time.
“The condition of the road is such that it gives me a backache everyday. It vibrates a lot and since the roads are bad, it takes an hour extra for us to finish duty on this stretch,” says Bharani.
Each time it rains, the struggle to drive increases manifolds. Bharani recalls, “The bus has no windscreen wiper.” Apart from a non-existent wiper, neither the brake nor indicator lights of the bus work. Same with the LED display boards, adds Bharani as he struggles to pull the gear lever which is half stuck.
In between, Shafeeq chips in, “The drivers write down complaints on their work sheet which is submitted to the depots. But only the most important complaints are taken care of.” The complaints that are generally given priority are those about brakes, clutch and gear. “Only those maintenance works are done which is enough for the bus to run.
Look at these ceiling lights, six out of the 10 don’t work,” he adds. Meanwhile, the maintenance department has not received any funds after bifurcation of the state. “This year we have requested for `11 crore. It is to be seen if the finance department approves our request,” says O Venkateshwrlu, chief maintenance engineer with TSRTC. The TSRTC’s maintenance department was funded with approximately `5 crore in 2014, he adds.
Roshan (name changed) is a conductor on a bus plying on the Afzalgunj route. He was witness to an accident where one of his passengers got down from the moving bus and was hit by another vehicle. The man died on the spot, recalls Roshan, looking at the automatic doors that do not work.
“It caused me much distress,” he remembers. “I ask people not to get off the moving bus, but they just don’t listen. I get angry at them and they think I am a rude person. The automatic doors don’t work,” he adds.
What else is bothersome
“The buses are just too dirty,” said A Kumari, an accountant. “Look at the handles. They are greasy and have turned black. It’s unhygienic. The authorities should give priority to cleanliness. Also, the bus is full of advertisements which makes it look ugly,” she opined.
“If we park the vehicle somewhere for tea, people come and paste advertisements. The cleaners at depot don’t take the trouble to scrape it off either,” said Roshan. The bus floor boards too are in a bad shape, he added.
To be continued...