VIJAYAWADA: Amid sky-rocketing fuel prices, APSRTC will not hike fares for its bus service, N Surendra Babu, MD and Vice-chairman of the corporation, said.Addressing a press conference here on Friday, the IPS officer said as diesel becomes expensive by Rs 7 per litre, AP State Regional Transport Corporation (APSRTC) would incur an additional loss of around Rs 210 crores, annually. Surendra Babu said he would approach the government seeking assistance for the debt-ridden corporation if situations worsened.
“We would not put the burden on passengers whenever there is a hike in fuel prices. Despite the corporation running on loss, we are providing services in rural areas and trying to increase the passenger occupancy ratio. Cost-cutting approach is also adopted to reduce extent of losses,” he said.
The official added he has studied various issues APSRTC is troubled with after taking charge as its managing director (MD) and vice-chairman and explained his plans to bring back normalcy within the corporation. “We are going to purchase 850 new buses at a cost of Rs 200 crore. We have plans to ply 134 buses through newly adopted routes, with the rest to be used to fortify our fleet.”
Proposing ‘flexible fare system’ (dynamic pricing), Surendra Babu said bus tariffs on non-peak days would be reduced to help RTC reach out to more passengers. “Flexible fare system is a novel approach that we will implement for the first time. A minimum discount on fares will be given to passengers who book tickets online.”
The MD said the corporation has plans to augment annual non-traffic revenue to `1,000 crores by creating revenue yielding assets under Build Operate Transfer method. “RTC is receiving around `400 crores annually in the form of commercial revenue and has plans to increase it to `1,000 crore,” he said.
Surendra Babu also discussed problems faced by employees of the organisation, assuring them he would come up with resolutions soon. “Yes, I have come across many problems our employees face. By roping disengaged staff and on-call drivers, we can reduce burden on drivers. Also, pensions for 20,200 former employees will be released soon.”