Telugu Desam govt. to blame for RTC’s plight, say officials

‘Fleet was utilised at will, but no help was forthcoming’

The array of new APSRTC buses flagged off by Transport minister K. Atchannaidu meant to be plied on the Tirupati-Tirumala ghat route.

The APSRTC seems to have reached the point of no return with accumulated losses rising steadily in the last few years. The major reason is lack of regular payment to the corporation on vehicles hired for various government programmes, according to sources.

Besides, government owes about ₹3,717 crore on various concessions being extended by the RTC to different sections.

According to the sources, on the directions of the previous Telugu Desam government, RTC arranged tours for the public for visiting the Polavaram project, and Amaravati, the State Capital. But, the payments were not made fully and the government owes about ₹100 crore to the corporation.

“We had spent about ₹80 crore for arranging tours to the Polavaram site in the last four years. But, we received only some amount and ₹67 crore is due from the government,” said APSRTC Vice-Chairman and Managing Director N.V. Surendra Babu recently.

RTC also arranged tours to devotees under the Tirumala Tirupati Devastanams (TTDs) Divya Darshini programme, the officers said.

The corporation is extending concessions for freedom fighters, students, police, media, physically challenged and other sections.

The management has on various occasions appealed to the government to pay ₹3,717 crore towards reimbursement on concessions, said an RTC official.

Debt burden

“The corporation is paying about ₹281 crore per annum towards debt servicing. The management has used up ₹105 crore leave encashment of the employees and ₹671 crore provident fund amount” a top official of the corporation said.

“APSRTC arranged buses from different depots for many public meetings, including Asha workers, police (felicitation arranged for former Chief Minister for giving promotions), and other programmes arranged in Vijayawada. Needless to say, the corporation’s services were misused a lot,” said a union leader preferring anonymity.

Despite severe losses and not effecting fare hike in the past few years, the RTC has been performing exceedingly well as is reflected in good Earnings Per Bus (EPB), Earnings Per Kilometre (EPK), Cost Per Kilometre (CPK), Average Utilisation of Vehicle (AVU) and highest Occupancy Ratio (OR) in the country, the officer said.