Anumolu Chandra Kumar is upbeat. He has just cancelled a ticket he had booked in advance in a private bus company to visit home for Dasara festivities and made a fresh booking in a bus belonging to the AP State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) for a lower price. “The decision of the State-run transport organisation to operate buses on regular fares this year will benefit many travellers like me,” says the techie from Hyderabad gleefully.
After a marathon round of talks with the State officials, the APSRTC management has announced its decision to do away with the 50% extra charges collected in the special buses that are pressed into service every year to clear the festival rush.
With the main festival days Durgashtami falling on October 3, Navami on October 4 and Dashami on October 5, the public transport giant will deploy 4,500 special buses, starting from September 26 up to October 9. “Dasara is a major festival for people of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. We will deploy special buses to cater to the transport needs of people travelling through the States to be with their families and friends on this special occasion. Regular charges will be collected in the special buses also because we do not want to burden the public,” says Ch. Dwaraka Tirumala Rao, the Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of the corporation.
Sources in the department indicate that the decision is mainly to fend off criticism heaped against the management by the Opposition parties and also the public in general for increasing ticket rates on all important occasions. “More than the financial advantage, we have been targeted for the raise,” says an official, hinting that the talk of “excessive rates” is doing more harm than good. The officials also do not deny the existing stiff competition posed not just by private bus operators but also other State transport units.
Private operators worried
The State RTC move to announce its decision early, giving ample time to people to revise their travel choice, has become a cause of worry for private bus operators who make a killing during festival seasons by jacking up the ticket fares manifold. “This may have an impact on the business of private bus operators,” admits M. Sambi Reddy, State president of AP Private Bus Operators’ Association. He goes on to add: “As it is we have enough reasons to worry about the ever-increasing burden of taxes and fuel price.”
Mr. Sambi Reddy says to keep a check on private operators from fleecing the passengers, the association has asked them to effect a minimum hike in bus fares during the festivities. But this is seldom followed in practice. As is evident, some of the private operators are charging as high as ₹3,000 per seat for a Vijayawada-Hyderabad trip.
Difficult decision
Doing away with additional bus fares at a time when the corporation is jostling with its financial troubles may further add to the financial stress of the organisation. It may be noted here that the Corporation, as part of the revenue-sharing agreement reached at the time when the APSRTC employees were merged with the government, has been asked to part with 25% of its monthly revenue with the State government, which now pays salaries to the RTC employees taken into the fold of the newly-created Public Transport Department (PTD). Ever since the merger, the government has been paying salaries to the RTC employees, estimated to cost the exchequer ₹300 crore every month.
The initial proposal that the revenue-sharing would start two years after the merger, as this gap would enable the Corporation to tide over its financial crisis, could not be implemented due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.
Sources in the department say that though the monthly revenue of the Corporation has gone up to around ₹525 crore after a recent hike in ticket fares and implementation of diesel cess, finance management will continue to be a tight rope walk for officials at the helm, as they will have to pay 25% of this revenue to the government and will not be left with sufficient funds to take up the slew of activities planned to augment the organisation.
Logical logistics
In the course of expanding boundaries and exploring new avenues to shore up revenue, the APSRTC shifted focus to the logistics department.
The cargo wing that was launched in 1985 on a contract basis with a private agency on space lease model, was taken under its own control by the APSRTC in August 2017. To its pleasant surprise, the revenue earned through this sector increased from ₹10.30 crore in 2015-16 (average revenue of ₹2.82 lakh daily) to ₹122.19 crore in 2021-22 (average daily revenue of ₹33.48 lakh).
The daily parcel bookings have increased from 8,850 in 2017-18 to 23,500 as on date. Encouraged by the good response, the RTC expanded the cargo services across the State, besides three inter-State locations of Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai.
