Officials of the AP State Road Transport Corporation are racking their brains on finding ways of wriggling out of the crisis that has befallen them in the form of an increase in the diesel price.
According to APSRTC vice-chairman and managing director AK Khan, the burden on account of the hike in the diesel price will be nearly Rs 350 crore.
The corporation is already suffering huge losses due to multiple reasons and is paying Rs 1 crore everyday towards interest on loans.
Maintenance of CNG and other diesel buses has also become burdensome.
Officials see two ways out of the impending adverse impact of the fuel price hike: Improving the internal efficiency and approaching the government to allow the corporation to hike passenger fares.
The corporation will approach the government with its proposal after a thorough study of the situation.
Though they had no intention to increase the fares, something had to be done to better the situation as the corporation’s finances were in a mess, he said.
Efforts made so far had not led to any improvement in the occupancy of buses and there seemed no alternative to raising the revenue. The corporation was contemplating focusing on non-passenger revenue, he said but did not elaborate on it.
Private Bus Fares May be Hiked
HYDERABAD: The private bus operators are contemplating increasing the fares due to a hike in diesel prices. Private Bus Operators Association state president H Bose said the present diesel price hike is an additional burden to private buses because they are already in deep crisis.
He said no operator could run their vehicles with the present hike, adding that a bus owners meet will be held on Saturday in Hyderabad to discuss the situation. If fares were not hiked, most of the buses would not run on roads. There are as many as 1,000 private buses across the state.