The government has agreed to stand guarantee for the A.P. State Road Transport Corporation APSRTC to procure a term loan of ₹1,000 crore, a move that comes as a huge relief for the corporation which is in desperate need of funds to replace old buses and also to augment its fleet.
The repayment of the loan (both principal and interest) will be done by the APSRTC from its internal resources and the corporation will also have to make payment of a one-time commission of 2% of the loan amount.
The corporation operates a fleet of 11,871 buses, some of which have outlived their utility and need immediate replacement.
Emission norms
Amidst severe financial crisis which has deepened over the years, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy approved the workers’ demand of the merger of the public sector giant with the government. Though clarity is yet to emerge on allocation of the sanctioned amount under different heads, officials feel that the situation will ease to some extent.
According to the officials, 350 new buses would be added to the fleet as part of a decision to buy 1,000 new vehicles in phases. This is because of the country’s transition from the Bharat Stage (BS)-IV emission norms currently in place, to the BS-VI norms on April 1, 2020. The Supreme Court made it clear that no BS-IV vehicle should be sold in the country from April 1. The employees, meanwhile, have a reason to smile, as the management promised to make some of the pending payments after the loan was sanctioned.
