Hyderabad: Drivers and maintenance technicians at the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TGSRTC) are facing an uncertain future after the management issued a notice on April 1 asking them to indicate their preferences for inter-district transfers or risk being transferred based on the agency’s needs — a move that has rattled many workers who have served the organisation for over three decades, some with barely a year or two left before retirement.
The reason behind the TGSRTC’s move is the state government’s decision to revamp the entire RTC bus fleet within the Outer Ring Road’s (ORR) limits by replacing the old diesel buses with 2,000 new electric buses by December 2026. All the RTC diesel buses will be relocated to districts outside the ORR, as announced by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy multiple times recently.
The RTC workers have been left in limbo, as they have been given two options. If they choose their option before April 15, they will be deputed to their choice of district. However, if they don’t give their options by then, the management can depute them to districts as far as Adilabad, Karimnagar or Khammam, wherever it feels there is a need.
RTC drivers concerned
Suddala Suresh, who is the general secretary of TGSRTC Bahujan Workers Union, said that many of the RTC drivers were settled with their children in Hyderabad, with some of them serving for over three decades. He is worried that the sudden transfer will disrupt their families.
Another issue concerning the workers is that there is a lack of clarity on whether their seniority will be protected through the transfers in either of the options.
However, the TGRTC has also given the option that if the drivers and technicians are educated, they can continue to work as conductors in the private buses in the existing zone.
Suresh told Siasat.com that there are 9,000 workers who will be impacted by this move.
The main concern here is that the private buses could use the services of the conductors, but not the drivers and technicians, as they have their own resources for that purpose.
Workers worried about an unofficial takeover of RTC depots
Suresh saw a larger plan of the private firms to slowly take over the depots, which are presently under the TGSRTC. For instance, he claimed that the deports in Greater Hyderabad zone like Hayathnagar, Cantonment, Ranigunj, Gachibowli, and those in other zones like Warangal 2, Suryapet and Nizamabad, have already been witnessing such takeover in physical terms, though not in financial terms.
In these depots, the private buses have been occupying the parking area meant for RTC buses. They have their own EV charging stations there, with their own maintenance team and a depot manager. He suspected that in the near future, all the RTC depots (25 in the Greater Hyderabad zone) could go into the hands of the private players.
The Centre’s condition on subsidising electric buses
The concern of RTC workers is that the state government could purchase the electric vehicles through the TGSRTC and operate them with the existing staff in the Greater Hyderabad zone. However, they say there is a catch here.
“The state government has proposed to the Centre to allow it to purchase those buses, but the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has made it clear that the subsidised electric buses will only be provided to private firms or individuals and not to the state governments,” Suresh said.
“The bone of contention here is the subsidy. An electric bus is being provided at a cost of Rs 2 crore, with a Rs 36 lakh subsidy. If the state government is allowed to buy them from the Centre under the scheme, RTC will save that subsidy amount. But the Centre is giving such buses on subsidy only to private firms which are owned by big corporates,” Suresh alleged.
The RTC workers are demanding that the Centre let the state government purchase those subsidised electric buses and operate them through the TGSRTC.
‘Why only RTC buses and not 80 lakh other vehicles?’
Kattula Yadaiah, co-convener of the TGSRTC Joint Action Committee (JAC), said he wondered why the RTC’s diesel buses were being targeted in the name of environmentalism, while around 80 lakh vehicles running in the Greater Hyderabad region were not being relocated.
He also noted that in Suryapet, the depot has been occupied by private electric buses and the RTC buses were being parked outside it.
Also noting that in a number of private electric buses, the driver himself is the conductor collecting the fare using a ticket issuing machine (TIM), Yadaiah questioned how there can be job security for RTC workers in the future.
RTC’s emotional connect with Hyderabad’s heritage
There is also a heritage aspect attached to the RTC buses in Hyderabad, which is an emotional issue for the workers.
The workers recalled that RTC (then NSRRTD) was established in 1932 by the 7th Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, who gave the letter “Z” to the number plates of all public buses in memory of his mother, Zahra Begum – a tradition which is still followed.
The RTC workers say that there is no private bus running with “Z” on their number plate.
They feel that these phased transfers are but the beginning of the process to put the RTC in the Greater Hyderabad in the hands of private companies owning electric buses.
RTC workers threaten strike
The RTC workers have issued an ultimatum to the management of TGSRTC, demanding that they also participate in the meeting scheduled between the affected workers and the Joint Commissioner on April 13 to listen to their woes, failing which they will go on a strike.
| Posted by Vivek Bhoomi | | 
