VIJAYAWADA: An inter-state agreement entered between Road Transport Corporations of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana has become a boon for private operators, especially those who run their buses on the Vijayawada-Hyderabad route. After the deal was signed, the Road Transport Authority has received requests from operators seeking permission to ply 100 more buses on the route, according to officials.
The memorandum of understanding entered between APSRTC and the TSRTC in Hyderabad on Monday, allows Telangana to operate 820 buses and cover 1,61,528 km in AP. However, the APSRTC will operate 638 buses from the earlier 1,009 buses and cover 1,60,999 in Telangana.The corporation, which operated 264 buses from Krishna district to Hyderabad, Khammam and Nalgonda earlier, will now run only 166 of them.
RTC regional manager G Nagendra Prasad said, “After the agreement, services from Krishna have been reduced to 166, which will cover 74,110 km in Telangana. Over the last couple of days, 100 buses were operated to Hyderabad from Vijayawada with 80 per cent occupancy. As per the agreement, the TSRTC will ply 273 buses on Vijayawada-Hyderabad route and the APSRTC 192.” On how the region is planning to recover the losses to be incurred due to the reduction in bus services, the official said a study will be conducted shortly to improve the bus connectivity to Visakhapatnam and other north Andhra districts, and Chittoor, Kadapa, Kurnool and Anantapur in Rayalaseema.