HYDERABAD: Referring to a recently conducted survey by the Road Transport Corporation (RTC), Transport Minister Ajay Kumar said on Wednesday that only 4.3 per cent of the respondents had expressed concern over the hike in fare prices.
“Since the RTC remains cheaper compared to other modes of transport, even if there is some deflection, (patronage) will not have a major impact on long run,” he said, speaking after announcing that a proposal for hiking the fares had been sent to the government.
RTC Chairman Bajireddy Govardhan said that when the RTC had forwarded a similar proposal earlier, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had asked the management to focus more on long distance buses.
“Now the corporation has complied and despite there being some vacant seats, the Road Transport Corporation has been generating good revenues. Hence we are requesting the Chief Minister to approve the hike at the earliest,” he said.
RTC Managing Director VC Sajjanar recalled that two years ago, there was a 20 paise-hike on all types of services, but the corporation had faced huge losses owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.