HYDERABAD: When the TSRTC strike began on October 5, the corporation’s management had assured that there would be no disruption of services to and from the RGI Airport as they were undertaken by private-hire buses. In other words, private players connect the public to the airport and the TSRTC pays them a service fee in return.
However, it is learnt that the e-bus operators have now deviated from the original plan and have begun issuing separate paper tickets as opposed to the computerised printed tickets. Officials attribute this shift to the acute shortage of staff.
The new tickets were brought into the scene after the TSRTC decided to stop issuing tickets temporarily and allow the private players to operate the buses on their own. Consequently, not only has the nature of the tickets changed, but the operators have stopped depositing the revenue collected from these tickets with the TSRTC — as done by other private-hire buses. Simply put, the corporation has allowed them to keep their earnings. By permitting the operators to keep the ticket money, the TSRTC will not have to pay the service fee for the strike period.
“It was becoming difficult for us to operate the buses normally owing to the lack of ticket checking staff and point controllers. So, we have permitted private players to operate them on their own. Usually, the RTC pays about `41 to the private buses for every kilometre they ply. Now, we are allowing them to keep whatever they earn from the tickets so that we won’t have to pay them the service fee,” said a senior RTC official.
However, with no checks, commuters allege these buses are no longer punctual. They accuse airport liners of plying only on routes that have more takers.