TSRTC losing Rs 80 lakh per day in Hyderabad, may reduce buses by 600

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) is still losing about Rs. 80 lakh per day in the city owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected footfalls of passengers. It has also been learnt that the TSRTC is planning to cut down its fleet in Hyderabad by 600 buses, owing to its financial situation, thanks to rising fuel prices and the pandemic.

However, while the plan or proposal to decrease the TSRTC’s fleet in Hyderabad by 600 buses isn’t final yet, sources said. In the city, the corporation operates 2,985 buses, while it has another 3,000 buses that run across the entire state of Telangana. A senior TSRTC official told siasat.com that the corporation in Hyderabad makes about Rs. 2.5 crore per day as of now, which is much lesser than the Rs. 3.3 crore per day it was making before the COVID-19 pandemic affected it.

“We have changed our schedule slightly also. Buses in Hyderabad would start at early hours say around 4:30 p.m., would run till late around midnight. However, now we begin operations from around 5 a.m. post COVID-19. We have also cut down our daily kilometers as well,” the TSRTC official added. The state-run bus corporation makes around Rs. 10 crore per day in revenue in Telangana on the whole as of now. That used to be around Rs. 11-12 crore per day earlier before the COVID-19 pandemic.

TSRTC to cut down 600 buses in Hyderabad?

As of now, it is not certain when the TSRTC will cut down its fleet in the Greater Hyderabad region, but sources informed that it may happen soon as it is something that chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) himself has asked the TSRTC to do. “They want to cut down losses until the situation gets better. But this will result in lesser frequency of buses and lower coverage of routes,” the source added.

Moreover, it has been learnt that the TSRTC is also mulling to cut down its Pallavelugu fleet in the rural areas by 5% as well. “The Pallevelugu fleet comprises about 45% of the TSRTC’s buses in the districts outside Hyderabad. Basically, they want to reduce Pallevelugu buses to 40% to cut down the corporation’s losses,” the source informed. In Telangana’s rural areas, TSRTC is a very important mode of public transport, as those who do not own private vehicles depend on it.