Telangana State Road Transport Corporation survives on ticket sale, says VC Sajjanar
HYDERABAD, Dec 4 (The CONNECT) - Stating that TSRTC would never like to burden its commuters, the corporation has sought to justify the fare hike owing to the steady rise in fuel and COVID-triggered pressure on the cost of operations.
Though painful, the fare hike is the only way out , said VC Sajjanar, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director- TSRTC. “The management does not want to impose a burden on the commuters and at the same time neither can it take the burden,” he said in a signed statement.
TSRTC proposes for hike of 25 Paise /Km for ordinary and Pallevelugu (rural serices) and 30 paise/km for other services. As much as 95% revenue of the TSRTC comes only from Tickets sale. Sajjanar said the State-owned corporation on average serves about 37 lakh passengers daily and many a time the number has reaches one crore a day.
“The TSRTC is a workers’ organisation, nearly 49,000 work for it. We are committed to the welfare of the workers and the convenience of the commuters too and also committed to bail it out of losses and make it profitable. During the lockdown, though the buses were not plying, still we played a major role in transporting Guest Workers, Sanitary workers, Covid Warriors, Medical and Paramedical staff, Law and Order professionals and all other workers who worked for essential services. It is a mammoth task to achieve all these objectives without the support and patronage of its stakeholders. Everyone should promote RTC and strengthen its arms,” he said.
“Even after getting the nod of the proposed hike of 25 paise and 30 paise on Ordinary and Express services, respectively, from the government, we still happen to be the mode of transportation in India. Cheaper, faster and safer,” he said.
The last fare revision was affected in December 2019, but it didn't help it much because of the complete lockdown in March 2020. Then came the jolt around in April when a second lockdown was imposed. Since then many developments have taken place. The TSRTC could not be functional to its fullest capacity. the public is aware of the problems it faces, Sajjanar pointed out.
Diesel prices have gone up to 27.5% to 34% since the last fare hike and each day our buses require at least 6.80 lakh litres of diesel.
Earlier, Telangana Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar told media that the corporation had suffered losses to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore in the last two years. “The loss came down to 600 crore and will go down further in coming years,” he said the operations are slowly limping back to normalcy.
It has already clocked a daily revenue of Rs 11.5 crore, which is almost the same as pre-covid times. The fleet has been travelling to 33 lakh kilometres, which is almost equivalent to normalcy, the Minister said.
