The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) has over 2000 buses plying in Hyderabad which are way past their age, an RTI query revealed. The average age of service of a bus in the city is 10 years. The TSRTC has also scrapped a total of 629 buses in the past six years, without replacing these buses.
The RTI revealed that the corporation has added just 250 new buses to its fleet while a total of 829 buses have been junked since 2014, reducing the bus fleet of the corporation to just 2,982 buses in the Greater Hyderabad zone. The bus fleet in 2014 was 3811.
The RTI was filed by G Sai Ratna Chaitanya, a resident of Hyderabad.
Since 2016, the TSRTC could not add even one city ordinary, metro luxury, metro deluxe, metro express bus, which ply within the city limits. For the year 2019-2020, the corporation could add just two super luxury buses for district service.
While the average age of a bus in terms of kilometers is 9,56,597, over 279 buses are have reached 9-10 lakh kms; 300 buses have covered 10-11 lakh kms; 302 buses have covered 11-12 lakh km; 220 buses have covered 12-13 lakh km; 196 buses have covered 13-14 lakh km; 176 buses have covered 14-15 lakh km; 127 buses have covered 15-16 lakh km; 60 buses have covered 16-17; and 62 buses have crossed 17 lakh km. There are just 829 buses which have travelled less than six lakh kms.
Speaking to TNM, G Sai Ratna Chaitanya said, “Few buses which are plying in the city might look new but all of the JNNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission) buses were rebuilt. They all have new bodies but old chassis and engine. When a bus crosses 10 lakh km, the corporation does good maintenance of them, but since their financial condition is very bad, they are not able to maintain them.”
Meanwhile, the TSRTC Employees’ Union on Wednesday called for a state-wide RTC strike on October 6. The union alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao failed to live up to his promise. In October, 2019, the RTC employees went on a 52-day strike with a charter of 26 demands including the merger of the debt-ridden TSRTC with the government and health security for the employees. The union said that KCR who had promised various welfare measures failed to fulfill their primary demand of health security even after 10 months of his assurance. They said that the government is yet to reimburse the salary during the strike period and provide full settlement to the retired employees. Alleging harassment since the union had called off the strike, the union said that they will register their protest at their respective depots on October 6 during the lunch-hour.