The APSRTC bus depot, reopened by Transport Minister Sidda Raghava Rao in Kovvur on Saturday, has restored the transport link to the remote Agency and upland areas in West Godavari district. The RTC authorities closed the depot in 2006, reportedly with no financial viability owing to the dwindling occupancy ratio.
The RTC top-brass revisited the decision and reopened the depot with 26 shuttle services following a flood of requests from the surrounding villages. The services will cover the remote villages in Polavaram, Nidadavole, Koyyalagudem and Tallapudi mandals.
Kovvur, located on the western side of the Godavari river with Rajahmundry city on the other is a gateway to the far-flung Agency area in Polavaram mandal and the upland mandals of Koyyalagudem and Devarapalli. Speaking at a function in this connection, TDP MLA K.S. Jawahar thanked the government for fulfilling his election promise of reopening of the bus depot.
RTC Regional Manager Rama Rao said that the number of shuttle services attached to the depot would be increased to 50 soon. With the closure of the depot, milk producers and vegetable farmers from the interior villages had a restricted access to markets and students faced hardship to reach their colleges. Auto-rickshaws became the only medium of public transport for these villagers.
Traders’ woes
Traders supplying tobacco seedlings from these parts to the tobacco-grown areas in Prakasam and Guntur districts also found it difficult to run their business smoothly, owing to lack of public transport. According to Mr. Jawahar, it was a traumatic experience for the farmers who frequented Bellari in Karnataka for works for the want of direct bus services. They were constrained to either go to Vijayawada all the way from Kovvur by road to catch Bangalore-bound buses or board a train. “This is story of past now”, said Mr. Jawahar, saying that proposals for introduction of direct services to Hyderabad from Kovvuru was under consideration.
