VIJAYAPURA: The state-of-art APSRTC Metro Liners, introduced in Vijayawada City with much fanfare and high expectations, are only compounding the woes of the transport organization, which is already reeling under losses.
The new buses, along with airport liners, are yet to get enough takers for them to operate even on a no-loss-no-gain basis.
As many as 13 buses were introduced three months back by the APSRTC in this region, which are being operated to Eluru and Tenali from the Auto Nagar bus depot here every day.
So far, these Metro Liners have registered occupancy ratio of only 40 to 50 per cent. The APSRTC management has been spending nearly ` 3 lakh on each bus every month, including maintenance charges, wherereas it has been getting a revenue of ` 1.5 lakh per month from each bus.
“Every month, the APSRTC is bearing a loss of nearly ` 30-35 lakh due to these buses, including the staff salary and diesel prices. With the fluctuations in the diesel prices, every month we are bearing a loss of ` 80,000 on an average and we are paying more than ` 10 lakh as salaries for the 52 RTC drivers and conductors of all the 13 AC buses working in the two shifts. Oridnary buses give a mileage of 5.2 km per litre of diesel whereas in the case of AC buses it is just 2.5 km per litre of diesel.
This has cast an extra burden on the APSRTC”, A senior official of the transport organization said.
“Though we are operating seven buses to Eluru and four to Tenali from the Auto Nagar bus depot on time, none of them carries its full complement of passengers. We have been collecting ` 103 for Eluru and ` 70 for Tenali. The people need to get habituated to traveling by these AC services, as they mostly stick to the old city buses,” he said.
Even the newly-launched airport liners are registering only 50 per cent occupancy ratio everyday due to improper timing of the services. Officials said that these metro liners should have at least 95 per cent occupancy ratio to become profitable.
Meanwhile, the seven AC Metro Liners that are being operated between Vijayawada and Guntur from the last six months are running on no-loss-no-gain basis.