VIJAYAWADA: City commuters strongly feel the need for the APSRTC to operate more services and smart buses to various localities in view of growing population. Owing to poor connectivity and lack of enough bus services, commuters, particulary working class people and students, are forced to travel by autorickshaws.
For instance, it is a daily ordeal for commuters to travel between Eluru Road and Bandar Road as there are no direct services connecting these places where majority of educational institutions are located. A few years ago, the APSRTC withdrew the bus service (No 28) between these two arterial roads citing poor occupancy. At present, the APSRTC enjoys an occupation ratio (OR) of over 60 percent.
Taking advantage of the situation, auto drivers fleece commuters by demanding exorbitant fare to ferry them between Eluru and Bandar roads. A Hobson’s choice for people.
When TNIE studied the situation at ground level, several commuters, especially women and senior citizens, said that boarding city buses, crowded with students, during rush hours, is a herculean task.
‘’We have to board at least two buses from Central part of the city to reach Vidyadharapuram, where hundreds of unorganised sector workers are employed in the iron yard. Officials should introduce new services on this route since it has great potentiality to augment revenue of the corporation’’, said B Veera Babu, a commuter.
‘’Apart from operating regular buses, officials should also consider introducing mini buses with smart facilities to neighbouring localities such as Vijayawada are being developed on par with State capital Amaravati,” said K Lakshmana Rao, another commuter. He also appealed to officials to phase out pollution-spewing old buses.
Speaking to TNIE on Monday, APSRTC Vijayawada region chief traffic manager, B Sriramulu, said that the corporation operates 450 city buses, including sub-urban and metro express services on 115 routes. As many as 2,16,137 people commute by city buses every day, and the corporation earns a revenue of `42 lakh per day. According to him, the occupancy ratio (OR) stands at 60 per cent.
“We haven’t received any request from commuters for increasing the frequency of the existing bus services or for introducing shuttle services. If there are such requests, then the corporation will take steps to fulfil them. A survey will be conducted shortly across the city to study the feasibility for introducing bus services on new routes’’, Sriramulu added.
The bus ride
60 percent: Occupancy ratio of city buses
115: Routes where city buses are operated
431 buses: Operated per day
5,437: Trips per day
1,32,775: Kilometres city buses operated per day
2,16,137 : Passengers commute by city buses
Rs 42 lakh per day: Income earned through city bus operations
