VIJAYAWADA: Though the Andhra Pradesh government is ready to run inter-state buses, it has been unable to because neighbouring states are yet to give their consent. The AP State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) planned to resume services to Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru from June 8, but the governments of Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka did not respond to requests for permission for this.
Since the neighbouring states’ governments have not offered any response to Andhra Pradesh, officials here are clueless as to when inter-state bus services will be resumed.
Odisha too is yet to give its consent to resume bus services to and from Andhra Pradesh. As per the lockdown relaxations granted by the Central government, inter-state bus services can be resumed with the consent of the source and destination states.
“We are ready to resume inter-state bus operations, and officials are holding discussions with their counterparts on the matter. Once we get their consent, we will operate buses as per the protocol suggested by the Central government, ensuring physical distancing and sanitising the buses thoroughly,” Transport Minister Perni Venkataramaiah said.
APSRTC executive director (operations) KS Brahmanandha Reddy told TNIE on Saturday that a couple of days ago, Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney wrote to her counterparts in the neighbouring states about resuming inter-state bus services. “There has been no response from them, so we cannot make an announcement on when inter-state buses will ply again,” he said.