Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday said there were no plans to privatise the yet-to-be-bifurcated Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) as feared by some sections. He also announced a special ‘Telangana’ increment for about 57,000 employees working in the 10 districts of the new State, with immediate effect.
He also said that August 19, the day when the intensive household survey was conducted by the government and when the RTC employees worked, would be declared a holiday and treated as special casual leave. He was addressing RTC employees at the People’s Plaza before flagging off an 80-strong fleet of Volvo 8400 air-conditioned Metro Luxury buses that would ply on four main routes here.
The Chief Minister said his Government was also working on a massive plan to lay new roads where there were none and re-carpet over 30,000 km of roads across the State, in addition to taking up double-laning of all roads between mandal and district headquarters.
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Lauding the corporation’s Managing Director J. Purnachandra Rao and Joint Managing Director (Telangana) G.V. Ramana Rao for following up the JNNURM proposals and getting the new buses, he asked them to create changing rooms for women employees at bus stations.
Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said the Metro Luxury buses would mark the beginning of a new chapter in the new State and promised that he would speak to Union Minister for Surface Transport Nitin Gadkari and see that the corporation got Centre’s support.
Transport Minister P. Mahender Reddy said the corporation currently had about 10,000 buses running in the 10 districts of the new State. “There are about 1,300 villages that were not served as there were no roads. But we will soon ensure that they are connected by buses,” he promised.
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