TSRTC buses exempted from night curfew

As officials point out to low occupancy, KCR relaxes restrictions to the State-run service

All TSRTC buses from districts will be exempted from night curfew Thursday onwards and allowed to reach Jubilee Bus Station and Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station, Imliban.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao declared that the RTC buses are getting exempted from the curfew restrictions from Thursday. Mr. Rao held a review meeting on the RTC at Pragathi Bhavan here on Wednesday. Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, RTC MD Sunil Sharma, ED Yadagiri and others participated. On this occasion, the RTC officials explained about the situation following revival of bus services.

Officials told the Chief Minister that RTC incurred heavy losses due to the recent developments, such as the prolonged strike. “When the problem was solved and the situation was getting back to normal, coronavirus issue came up. Though permission is given for some RTC buses to ply, due to imposition of curfew, the buses are not plying to their full capacity,” they noted.

It was pointed out that every day RTC should get ₹ 11 crore to ₹ 12 crore income. During summer and wedding season the income should be ₹ 15 crore per day. “Now the income is only ₹ 2 crore per day. There is only 39 per cent occupancy in the buses. The main reason for this low occupancy is imposition of curfew in the nights. Passengers going to their destinations are not been able reach before 7 p.m. Since this is peak summer, passengers would like to travel either in the morning or during the nights. Since buses are plying only during the daytime, it has not proved useful to people,” the RTC officials explained.