Interstate bus services to take time as the deadlock between Telangana and AP continues

The deadlock between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh over inter-state bus services continues. Officials said a fourth round of talks between the two states on the issue was likely to take more time. The Telangana RTC has announced that it will run buses from Telangana to Andhra Pradesh at a distance of 1.60 lakh km per day. APSRTC also said it should be limited to same distance. It was decided at a recent meeting to hold officer-level talks on this again next week.

APSRTC has been operating 375 buses daily to Telangana till date. At present, Telangana authorities have said in writing that Andhra Pradesh should be limited to 206 services only. With this, the suspicions are being expressed by the APSRTC officials. In the wake of these developments, it is being speculated that talks at the official level between the two states may not be held on Monday and Tuesday.

During the meeting between AP and Telangana RTC MDs on September 15, there was no discussion on bus services. The meeting ended without any final decision. The RTC MDs and EDs of the Telugu states met at the Hyderabad Bhavan to discuss the restoration of RTC bus services and kilometer issues between the two states. The issue of how many buses to run on which routes was discussed. RTC MDs of the two states then spoke to the media.

Public transport was halted due to a nationwide lockdown imposed over the Coronavirus and bus services between AP and Telangana were halted. The two state governments have so far been unable to run RTC buses despite the unlock process and the ban on state transport. The AP government has allowed private buses to run to Hyderabad. Private operators started the services as there were no objections from the Telangana government. There are currently 150 services running from Andhra Pradesh to Hyderabad.