Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation N. Sambasiva Rao has said that his priority will be to work for boosting the image of the yet-to-be-bifurcated organisation by ushering in cleanliness, improving quality of service and increased revenue.
“I cannot promise the moon, but I certainly have a few ideas. While knowing we cannot compete with airlines in cleanliness and ambience, with the cooperation of everyone in this mammoth organisation I am confident of ushering in changes that will make the travelling public come to us,” he said in his first interaction with presspersons after taking over on Friday.
Asked about where he would begin, he said that Prime Minister’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was a good place to start. “We will go on a campaign mode in our endeavour to keep the buses and bus stations clean to make passengers feel at home and usher in a change in our public interface. We are sure we can offer stiff competition because by and large, we are among the safest operators on the road,” he explained.
He said that contentious issues apart, it would be better if the bifurcation process was completed as soon as possible. “It is only sharing of human resources, buses and properties and in the process there are bound to be issues. But while those issues can be given more time to be sorted out, it would really help both corporations if the bifurcation process of the APSRTC is completed,” he said, categorically.
Mr. Rao said that apart from the human resource in the form of the about 1.2 lakh-strong workforce, a unique advantage of the organisation was its assets - moveable and immoveable. “We will be looking to maximise revenues from our assets. I am told that the corporation owns about 2,200 acres of land across erstwhile A.P. Over two dozen ‘build, operate, transfer’ projects are already on and we will work out more such projects soon,” he elaborated, hastening to add that all this did not mean privatisation.
Earlier, Mr. Rao took charge from the In-charge MD K.V.V. Gopal Rao and occupied the chair. Among others present were Joint MD (Telangana) G.V. Ramana Rao and other Executive Directors.
