AP State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) Chairman Varla Ramaiah, along with a team comprising Officer on Special Duty M.Y. Danam, Executive Engineer (Commercial) Sivaramaraju and a couple of others, is touring the airport-like bus terminals at Surat, Vadodara and Ahmedabad in Gujarat to study their models and replicate them in the cities of Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati of Andhra Pradesh. Faced with a serious financial crisis on account of accumulated revenue losses over the past several years, APSRTC is exploring all possible avenues to come out of the red.
Commercial route
With the government making it clear that the Corporation will have to find its own ways to generate additional income and plug huge financial gaps, RTC officials have taken the commercial route. Besides starting their own cargo service, Corporation officials are trying to use RTC properties scattered across the State to raise income. It has properties at Vidyadharapuram and Autonagar in Vijayawada and land at Visakhapatnam and Tirupati.
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“Our visit is aimed at assessing the functioning of the three state-of-the-art modern bus stations in this State and submit a report to the government which intends to replicate the models there,” Mr. Varla Ramaiah told The Hindu in a telephonic conversation.
On Sunday, the team visited the bus station at Surat and on Monday, the members went around Vadodara bus terminus. The RTC chief said he was particularly impressed by the Vadodara bus terminal built at a cost of ₹114 crore and spread over 2.4 lakh square feet. Touted as the country’s first international standard bus terminal, Mr. Ramaiah said “it is a five-story air-conditioned structure with a deluxe waiting hall and waiting lounge besides dormitories for the crew and passengers.”
Elaborating on its features, he said the terminal had an electronic scrolling system to provide arrival and departure timings of buses to commuters and that visitors were allowed only till the entry and exit gates whose entries were further divided into three parts- one each for buses, pedestrians and for private vehicles.
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“It has a supermarket, shopping mall, multiplex, restaurant and food court, commercial offices, and a budget hotel on the premises. Wheel chair and separate toilet for handicapped persons have been provided at the terminal equipped with sign boards,” he said, adding: “Photographs and paintings of historical monuments of the city are displayed.”
On Tuesday, the team would visit the Ahmedabad bus station. “Based on our observation, we’ll make a presentation before the Chief Minister who would decide on the mode of execution of the project,” said Mr. Ramaiah.