Come this New Year, APSRTC is planning to offer customised bus passes for passengers enabling them to travel in tailored routes, right from their colonies to workplaces.
The aim is to make travelling convenient for passengers and discourage the use of personal transportation. This would not only help in increasing the revenues of the road transport corporation but also reduce traffic congestion on the arterial roads, alleys and streets, said RTC Greater Hyderabad zone Executive Director A. Koteswara Rao.
“However, these customised Metro Express passes will be offered only when 50 to 60 passengers express their willingness to travel in a group from their colonies to a particular place,” explained Mr. Rao at a press conference here on Friday.
Those willing to utilise the service have to shell extra fare as there were plans to offer these monthly passes at Rs.1,200 as against the regular Metro Express pass of Rs.700, he said.
This year, the onus would be on improving connectivity to colonies, particularly on the city fringes. The RTC plans to procure over 500 new buses and a majority of these would be used to connect different residential colonies with main centres, he said.
Circuit routes
There are close to 100 colonies like those beyond Alwal, Rajiv Nagar, Ambedkarnagar etc that need bus connectivity but the problem lies in roads. Majority of these colonies do not have proper roads, he said, adding that efforts would be made to operate a few buses on circuit routes enabling residents reach main roads.
In an effort to improve services, RTC is constructing 11 new depots and 20 bus terminals in the city and already lands have been identified for these structures.
The losses of the corporation, which used to incur an annual loss of Rs. 144 crore, had reduced to Rs. 56 crore till November 2012 as against Rs. 76 crore losses registered in November 2011.
“We are confident that by March 2013, the zone would post profits as Medchal depot already registered a profit of Rs. 2.15 crore this year,” said Mr. Rao.
This was possible due to cancellation of redundant trips during peak hours and reducing the bus frequency from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and maintaining punctuality and other measures. All these measures resulted in increased patronage as 37 lakh passengers were travelling everyday in 3,600 city buses against 33 lakh passengers travelled everyday last year, he added.
