It was an eventful year for the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation. While key policy decisions were made in connection with the future of its workers, and giving them a reason to cheer, and a change in government saw women becoming beneficiaries of free travel, one thing remained constant — the State road transport undertaking continued to grapple with losses.
In 2023, the TSRTC continued to have 97 depots, 11 regions, and 9,053 buses. It operated as many as 3,328 routes. Meanwhile, the SRTU recorded a loss of over ₹46 crore in the month of April this year. The accumulated losses run into a few thousand crores.
The year also marked an important milestone in the lives of TSRTC workers. For, the primary demand of the 2019 TSRTC strike — that of a merger with the State government — finally materialised. In August, the then Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government passed the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (Absorption of Employees into Government Service) Bill, clearing the decks for TSRTC’s 43,373 workers to be treated as government employees. However, Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan’s assent was awaited. Hundreds of workers took to the streets and marched towards the Raj Bhavan demanding the draft Bill be signed. After airing her concerns, like the share of the Union government in the Corporation and the handling of Corporation’s assets, Dr. Soundararajan signed it.
But this was not the end. TSRTC’s union leaders then raised the issue of arrears and pay revision, and demanded that these not be papered over, post worker absorption.
Concerns over the TSRTC’s ageing fleet continued to remain, even as a paucity of buses, especially in the Greater Hyderabad Zone was a sticky problem. As compared to other cities, such as Bengaluru, which has over 6,000 buses, the GHZ has merely around 2,700. While plans are afoot to have add another 1,000 buses, the move is yet to materialise. Once it does, the number will still be a far cry from Bengaluru’s fleet strength.
The issue of paucity of buses came to the fore once again, after the recently-elected Congress government launched the flagship free bus service for women and transgenders. While the scheme saw unprecedented response, it clearly overwhelmed the TSRTC as the Corporation staff found themselves stretched thin and on their toes, making arrangements to deal with the large number of passengers. The hit scheme — which shot occupancy in at least 45 bus depots over 100% and spiked women ridership to 62% — saw the TSRTC appealing women to passengers to not bring pressure on the staff to stop buses at locations which are not designated stages.
