Four-and-half-decade-old building of APSRTC on Eluru Road was finally pulled down on Monday. The RTC is planning to construct a Regional Manger (RM) office, hospital/dispensary in the place. It brings down to speculations that the government was toying with the idea of developing it in the private-public partnership (PPP) mode to generate income.
The offices of RM and dispensary are presently located at the Pandit Nehru Bus Station (PNBS). The RTC is planning a new building here as the corporate and other offices of RTC are being shifted to the city from Hyderabad. At present, some portion of the land is being used as RTC depot.
The building used to cater to the needs of RTC before it was handed over to Dental College a few decades ago in the city. As the Dental College was shifted to Medical University premises, the building fell vacant. The building collapsed partially in October 2008 when a lease holder tried to take up repair works. A construction worker died on the spot when the building caved in while repair works were being carried out. The RTC cancelled the lease agreement following uproar from the public.
Later, the RTC proposals to lease out the land to private parties ran into rough weather. There was a hue and cry over the proposals that a multiplex would come up there. The opposition parties and tax-payers demanded that the land be used to construct super-specialty hospital. They suggested that the old general hospital located on other side of Ryve’s Canal and RTC land should be connected by a bridge so that super-specialty hospital can be constructed.
The government in 1991 assured that the RTC bus stand land would be given to the Government General Hospital.
