VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) bus services, including Palle Velugu, Metro Express and city services, have begun plying at registered seating capacity on Wednesday. However, passengers will not be allowed to stand in the buses, while travelling.
As the buses running with half their capacity proved to be a burden to the APSRTC, (it was not getting enough revenue to compensate for the cost it is incurring on diesel), it had reportedly sought the permission of the State government to run buses with full capacity. It is learnt that the government had given its consent following a representation by the corporation and the services have started running with full capacity from today.
APSRTC Vice Chairperson and MD MT Krishna Babu issued orders to operate these buses with 100 per cent seating capacity, albeit in a phased manner. “Passengers will be made to sit one each per a frame (seat with two or three capacity). Only if all the frames are filled with one passenger, they will be allowed to sit next to another passenger,’’ officials explained, in an internal circular issued by the corporation to its staff. This arrangement is made so as to maintain physical distancing in view of COVID-19.
At present, the Occupancy Ratio (OR) stood at 53 per cent (with 50 per cent seating capacity). The same was around 75 per cent before the pandemic, ED (Operations) KS Brahmananda Reddy told TNIE. “At least 90 per cent OR will help us to earn revenue and bear other expenditures. We had requested the government to permit us to increase the seating capacity to 100 per cent from 50 per cent,” he said. After relaxation of lockdown, 1,683 intrastate services (with 50 per cent seating capacity) on 436 routes across the State. Over the months the bus services have increased to 4,600.