Faced with mounting revenue losses, the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation was forced to give in to the demands of its Telangana State counterparts while signing an agreement on inter-State bus operations during the post-lockdown period.
However, Corporation officials are now hopeful that the situation will improve post-March when they intend to review the agreement. “We have already written to them and hope to improve our financial position once we overcome the COVID-19 pandemic situation,” said K. Brahmananda Reddy, Executive Director (Operations), APSRTC.
Besides a huge revenue loss suffered by the public sector transport giant on account of the lockdown, the terms and conditions put forth by the TSRTC in the new agreement on the parity issue shrunk the APSRTC’s operational area in Telangana state by 1.1 lakh km and added 10,000 km for Telangana buses in Andhra Pradesh.
In a major climbdown, Andhra Pradesh has agreed to scale down operation of its buses in Telangana from 2.25 lakh km to 1.6 lakh km by running fewer buses (from 1,009 in the past to 638 now).
APSRTC officials, who maintain that the purpose of the State Road Transport Corporations should be to cater to the transport needs of the common man, are upset about the ‘adamant’ approach of their Telangana counterparts but are confident that they would soon be able to enhance their operations by reviewing the agreement.
‘Paying back in the same coin’
A few days ago, citing a ‘permit’ issue, the Tamil Nadu State Transport officials seized five buses belonging to the APSRTC (three from Tirupati depot and two from Chittoor depot).
Since it was a long weekend and any friction, if escalated, could lead to travel problems for people, Transport Minister Perni Venkataramaiah and Principal Secretary, Transport Department, M.T. Krishna Babu, asked officials to talk to their Tamil Nadu counterparts and resolve the issue.
Though there is an agreement between the two States, the incident occurred due to a minor issue. Meanwhile, sensing that the private travel operators of Tamil Nadu were behind the move, AP Transport officials conducted inspections and seized 24 private travel buses of Tamil Nadu here, citing the same permit issue.
“There is an increasing patronage for APSRTC buses operating on routes like Vellore to Chittoor. Private bus operators of Tamil Nadu influenced their local Motor Vehicle Inspectors to seize our buses operating on these routes. But the issue has been resolved,” said Mr. Brahmananda Reddy.
