Road Transport Authority officials on Sunday seized 10 private buses carrying passengers from distant places like Hyderabad and Vijayawada on the charge of violating rules. Cases were booked against the managements of the buses.
The raids by RTA officials were intensified following the possibility of the private bus operators plying more buses to take advantage of the Sankranti rush. The 10 buses were seized at different places in the rural area and at the city outskirts.
Probably due to the raids being conducted by the RTA officials, private bus operators discharged the passengers on the highway near the steel plant main gate in the morning. A young software engineer, who paid Rs.1,800 as fare from Hyderabad for a seat in an ordinary bus (which is nearly four times that of the normal fare which the passengers are forced to cough up as they have no other option due to no accommodation on trains and regular RTC buses) said the bus in which he was travelling and three or four buses of other operators stopped at a distance from the steel plant main gate and the passengers were told that they have to get down. When asked why the bus was not taking them into the city when the destination on the ticket was mentioned as RTC complex, the bus crew said they could not take the bus into the city, due to “traffic” in the city. The crew was also not willing to refund part the fare.
The passengers were forced to take RTC buses or autorickshaws into the city proper, which is nearly 15 km away.
