HYDERABAD: With educational institutions in the State set to reopen from February 1, the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) hopes to bounce back from the losses incurred due to the closure of schools and colleges.
According to sources, around 60- 70 per cent of students travelling by RTC buses prefer to buy tickets instead of using the monthly passes. In the past two-three weeks, RTC has cut down its services across the city owing to ‘reduced passenger movement’.
Presently, the Greater Hyderabad Zone (GHZ) operates 5,000 services through its 2500 buses of different types. Officials informed that some 10-20% services (each service operates 4-5 trips) were cut down during the latest wave of Covid-19, as profits did not come.
“All the services will be restored in the city and we are hopeful that the passenger movement will be back to normalcy in the coming days,” said a senior RTC official.
The Corporation officials had announced that some of its buses are available ‘on hire’ for events, including wedding parties. It is believed that all the buses used for such purposes are not engaged in passenger services. Earlier, scores of complaints from students were received on Corporation’s official twitter handle that there were no services on some routes and available buses witnessed overcrowding.
Meanwhile, experts have expressed concern over the reduction in the number of passengers using monthly passes. They said that RTC should be worried if the percentage of pass holders have declined as it shows there are not enough buses.
“Overcrowding on college routes is a very old issue. It is surprising that even after all these years, students have to protest to get buses allotted. TSRTC must provide adequate buses on college routes and not just boast about issuing subsidised passes to students,” said G Sai Ratna Chaitanya, a public transport researcher. Inadequate bus services remain a common problem across the city which the authorities are yet to resolve.