HYDERABAD: AT least five to six percent of buses in RTC’s Hyderabad fleet have exceeded their lifespan and need to be immediately replaced. But in the face of an acute shortage of funds, the corporation is forced to keep them running since there has been no separate allocation in its budget to replace old buses. In order to maintain what is already a bare minimum connectivity, these buses ply the city roads everyday.
Meanwhile, as Greater Hyderabad continues to expand in length and breadth, RTC is already a shortage of at least 2,000 buses to meet its requirements. With no new loans sanctioned for the purchase of new buses and no scope for the cash-strapped RTC to go it alone, the worst affected are the end users — the public. And Hyderabad’s tech savvy citizens leave no opportunity to point this out over social media.
In the latest social media trial of poor RTC services in the city, a photograph of an overloaded bus plying city roads, went viral on Twitter. Clicked and uploaded by Twitter user, Suresh Reddy, the photograph captured passengers hanging from the bus door or with their heads out the windows of the overcrowded bus. In fact, footboarding has increasingly become a reality even on the JNTU-IT stretch in the city given the very limited services and very high demand.
“They don’t have any option!! People need to stop blaming them, they are the victims here! Come to HITEC city you will see employees wearing ID cards of big int’l companies doing the same.TSRTC needs funds for more buses and that’s the only thing which will “fix” this situation,” commented one Twitter user when the passengers were blamed for travelling irresponsibly.While others commented how, in a bid to cut costs and reduce travel time, city buses are always in a hurry and never stop long enough to let the passengers board safely.
