HYDERABAD: The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) is poised to reach its daily earnings target after the recent fare hike across the State.On May 4, the TSRTC’s daily revenue reached Rs 12.19 crore, against the target of Rs 13.75 crore. Before Covid-19, the TSRTC’s daily earnings used to be in the range of Rs 10 crore - Rs 12 crore.
As per the TSRTC, daily earnings have been improved significantly, with the revenue touching Rs 15 crore a day. On April 18, the TSRTC recorded a daily earning of Rs 15 crore, which was the highest after the fare hike. Since April 11, the TSRTC has never registered daily earnings below Rs 10 crore. It was in March that the TSRTC decided to increase fares in city buses by Rs 5 besides rounding off fares in PalleVelugu buses, where ticket fare was rounded off to the nearest multiples of 5.
In case, the fare is Rs 13 or Rs 14, it would be rounded off to Rs 15 and if the fare was Rs 16 or Rs 17, it would be reduced to Rs 15. Some days later, the TSRTC management imposed a diesel cess of Rs 2 per passenger on Palle Velugu and city ordinary service, Rs 5 per passenger for Express, Deluxe, Super Luxury, City Metro and Deluxe services. With this, ticket fares have increased by Rs 10 per passenger in most of the bus routes.
Officials said that the TSRTC fleet covers around 30 lakh km every day through 9,500 buses. With regard to earnings per km (EPK), it is at Rs 38, which is close to the target of Rs 39.81 EPK. Among all four zones, EPK is highest in Greater Hyderabad Zone at Rs 46.85.
Apart from this, occupancy is satisfactory for RTC. The average occupancy in buses is 72 per cent against the target of 75 per cent. During Covid-19, RTC used to hardly register 50 per cent occupancy. The earnings per bus as on May 4 is Rs 12,862.
Scope to improve bus occupancy on Hyd routes, says Sajjanar
TSRTC Vice-Chairman and Managing Director VC Sajjanar on Thursday said that the Corporation has seen an increase in patronage in rural areas as compared to Hyderabad City. On Thursday, officials travelled in a bus and interacted with passengers to assess their satisfaction level. This exercise was taken as part of the weekly ‘bus day’ wherein senior functionaries of the TSRTC would travel by bus for a firsthand account of passenger experience. “The management feels there is tremendous scope for increase of occupancy in the city.
As a part of the strategy to improve occupancy, 102 senior officers, including the MD, were assigned specific routes to assess the scope. All officers have interacted with passengers and bus crew,” a TSRTC official said. As part of the above exercise, each officer was asked to travel in three to four buses, inspect bus shelters and interact with passengers. They gave various suggestions, which will be considered for future plans.