HYDERABAD: While Andhra Pradesh remains under lockdown, cargo services of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) have been hit by the curbs. The TSRTC is already facing a financial crunch and losing over Rs 17 lakh of revenue from its parcel and cargo services.According to officials, each day around 14,000 parcels are sent to different places in Andhra, which are shipped from various counters, apart from the MGBS and JBS.
TSRTC had to give up the idea after the AP agents expressed their reluctance in view of Covid. “We have decided to suspend the services for the week, as the service is facing logistics problems, like unloading and even our agents, they are unwilling to take risk in view of the pandemic,” said S Krishnakanth, TSRTC Special Officer, Cargo and Parcel Services.
The parcel services alone generate revenue of `15 lakh for the TSRTC, besides the special cargo buses which generate an average of `2 lakhs per day. Generally, parcels are shipped on the normal buses, the TSRTC also has a fleet of 184 cargo buses, including 150 buses with 10-tonne capacity, and 34 buses with four-tonne capacity, which are used to ferry heavy shipments.
The regular shipments include household goods, spare parts, textiles, rice, lentils, medicines and pharma products and other industrial merchandise. Interestingly, the APSRTC cargo services are continuing their operations and crossing over to Telangana. At the time, when TSRTC was about to get shipment orders from Surat, the second Covid-19 wave struck the business. “After the lockdown in 2020, TSRTC slowly started gaining momentum, but unfortunately the second wave came,” added Krishnakanth.
Following the restoration of service in June, 2020, the TSRTC delivered 31 lakh parcels and generated `30 crore in terms of revenue, besides `11 crore through special cargo buses. However, the door-to-door parcel delivery services which were started during the previous years, are yet to be restored, even within the State.