HYDERABAD: A TSRTC bus driver was fined Rs 1,000 for using his mobile phone while driving his bus, on Wednesday. The driver will also be given counselling and sent for a three-day training on best driving practices, said A Purushotham Reddy, Executive Director of Greater Hyderabad zone, TSRTC.
TSRTC is no stranger to the traffic police. Up until 2017 end, the corporation owes as much as `10,98,565 to the state’s traffic police department. Between 2013-17, traffic police booked as many as 7,652 challans against the corporation for various traffic violations, of these 2,611 challans are still pending.
“To bring down the number of traffic violations, we have started deducting the fine amounts due to traffic violations from the driver’s salary itself. Since we started doing this there has been a dramatic reduction by 75 per cent in cell phone driving among RTC drivers,” said Purushotham. The most common traffic violations RTC drivers gets challans are for not stopping the bus at proper bus bays or for stopping on road, he added.