APSRTC Bus Bhavan to be in Vijayawada

• MD indicates proposal to hike tariff
• Completes financial auditing to facilitate bifurcation
• Hospital, bus-building unit in Vijayawada

Vijayawada: APSRTC new managing director J Purnachandra Rao, during his interaction with the media persons here on Sunday, the RTC would construct Bus Bhavan in Vijayawada, for which they have identified the lands at Vidyadharapuram and Gannavaram. The RTC would also have to construct a bus body building unit and a hospital on priority after bifurcation and maintained that they would come up in the vicinity of the new capital.

The senior IPS officer said that the RTC after bifurcation has over Rs 2,500 debts and Rs 2,200 crore losses. The losses were mostly due to the separate Telangana and Samaikyandhra agitations, he said and observed that the RTC had to withdraw the PF and other savings, which had now become bone of contention for the management with the employees.

The Managing Director said that the RTC has a fleet of 12,216 buses of which 40 per cent were operated in the rural areas earning just 28 per cent of the total revenue. Similarly, the RTC was operating 11 per cent of its total bus services which were earning just 7 per cent revenue. The major revenue for the RTC was from the express services, he said and regretted that these express services were hit badly by the agitation before bifurcation, he added.

Besides increasing the tariff, the RTC was also considering the proposal to merge the corporation with the State Government, the managing director said and added that the government would soon take a decision.

The RTC regional manager, G Sudheesh Kumar, was also present at the news conference