APSRTC and TSRTC likely to reach consensus soon over interstate services amid Dussehra festival

The issue of restoration of RTC bus services between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states seems to have been finally resolved. Talks between the top brass of the two states are expected to take another time today. Officials concluded by saying they would talk to each other again take decision on restoring buses and continuing transport between the interstates. Negotiations seem to be fruitful as APSRTC comes forward with another last proposal.

Talks between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Road Transport Corporations (RTC) officials ended in a stalemate on Wednesday evening. The talks came to a standstill as Telangana officials discussed the issue of equality in kilometers as well as equal services on routes. However, there is a possibility of another round of talks and a final decision would be taken. It is also unclear whether there will be another round of talks before Dussehra. This was the fifth round of negotiations during the corona epidemic.

Although the RTC officials of the two states had made progress in the earlier talks on how many kilometers the buses would run, the AP, which had earlier said in the latest talks that the total would be reduced by 60,000 km from 2.60 lakh km, has now expressed its willingness to cut another 40,000 km. However, the Telangana authorities have recently proposed to run 1.6 lakh kilometers and the AP has proposed to run the same number of kilometers. APSRTC officials said they would reconsider.

With this the negotiations came to an end. Meanwhile, APSRTC has come forward with the latest proposals. Telangana RTC has sent a route map of 1 lakh 60 thousand kilometers to the authorities. APS RTC has finally sent the route map for 1 lakh 60 thousand kilometers once again and talks between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are likely to come to a standstill in two or three days. RTC officials said the decision was taken in the wake of the Dussehra festival in view of passenger congestion.