Covid-hit APSRTC on road to recovery

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) suffered revenue loss of Rs 2,527.91 crore this financial year so far due to Covid-19 and has been trying to cover the deficit by increasing the services.

RTC managing director and principal secretary to the transport department M T Krishna Babu said loss was inevitable due to Covid pandemic but the corporation was trying to generate revenue by launching other services like cargo services, leasing of RTC sites for development on PPP mode, through advertisements, etc.,

Addressing annual media conference at the RTC House here on Wednesday, Krishna Babu said the RTC could not operate buses due to pandemic and suffered a revenue loss of Rs 2527.91 crore between March 21,2020 to November 30, 2020 compared to the same period the previous year. He said the RTC earned Rs 827.65 crore since March to November in 2020 as against the Rs 3,355.56 crore last year.

Occupancy ratio was 78.22 percent for the same period in 2019 which fell to 59.14 per cent for the same period from March to November in 2020.

The MD further said operational area of buses also increased to 71 per cent and hoped that by February and March, 2021, the RTC will recover from the losses to a great extent. Occupancy ratio (OR) reached 70.74 per cent by December 2020 almost the same level as in December 2019 which was 71.45 per cent. 'The RTC is coming back on to its feet by increasing services and occupancy ration is also increasing in a phased manner. Hired bus services will be operated from January as the demand for the buses is gradually increasing in the state with economic activity being restored," he said.

Referring to generation of revenue other than ticket fares, the MD said the RTC will enter into MoU with private parties for development of RTC bus complexes on PPP mode and four bus stations in the state have been selected for it.

He said Maddipalem in Vizag, Auto Nagar bus station in Vijayawada, Raj Vihaar bus station in Kurnool and Tirupati main bus terminal were chosen for development in the first phase. Commercial complexes will be built in these bus stations on PPP mode which will help the RTC to generate the revenue and recover from the losses suffered during the lockdown period, he added.