Drastic drop of occupancy ratio brings down TSRTC revenue

Hyderabad: TSRTC, which had been in losses since the lockdown, faces a similar hardship again as there was a drastic drop in the occupancy ratio of passengers during the past few weeks. The fear of pandemic has pushed the occupancy from 60 per cent to 44 per cent in the last few weeks and brought down the revenues.

After the resumption of RTC services last September, the daily average occupancy ratio on the city bus services fell to 60 per cent and despite Covid cases coming down by the end of 2020, phobia continued and commuters preferred personal transportation. But the downward trend continued, as Covid cases rose once again the past few weeks bringing down the occupancy ratio further from 60 per cent to 44 per cent.

According to the RTC officials, passenger occupancy is expected to come down more in coming weeks. Another factor attributed to this is the closure of educational institutions after Covid surge in the City, while most of those working for private organizations, particularly IT companies continued to work from home.

V Venkateshwarlu, executive director TSRTC Greater Hyderabad zone, said, "Last month we have witnessed a slight increase in occupancy ratio and from the first week of April we have seen a major drop in the passenger ratio. Simultaneously, the revenue which was around Rs 2.8 crore a day earlier before the lockdown, now dropped to an average of Rs 1.5 crore in the last few days.''

He further added that for the past few weeks almost all the buses are running nearly empty, even during the weekends. "Due to the fear of second wave, passengers hesitate to board buses. In spite of the vehicles being sanitized after every trip and each time they are parked in the depots during night hours, we are not gaining the confidence of commuters on the safety aspect. As sanitization has become part of the maintenance, every depot is deployed with a motorized sanitization machine," he added.

As TSRTC has not received any guidelines from the State government on reducing the operations, the buses are plying under this situation. At present, the RTC is operating 100 per cent city services with a fleet of 2,800 buses, which include 2,400 buses by RTC and 400 hired ones.