Ahoy home! Passengers call for increase in bus fleet

Hyderabad : The surge in occupancy rates within Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) buses, attributed to the Mahalaxmi scheme, intertwined with the imminent Sankranti festive rush, underscores a pressing requirement to augment the existing bus fleet in the State. The Mahalaxmi scheme's popularity has eventually led to increased demand for public transportation, and with the upcoming festive season, the strain on the current fleet is palpable.

On Thursday, all bus stations in the city witnessed an unprecedented surge in commuter traffic at Jubilee bus station and MGBS, attributed to the State government's decision to declare holidays for educational institutions from January 12 to January 17.

As citizens embarked on journeys to their hometowns, despite the TSRTC augmenting the number of special buses, passengers encountered significant challenges. Many struggled to secure seats on the fully occupied buses, while others expressed dissatisfaction with the perceived low frequency of services.

The implementation of zero-fare tickets for women and transgenders by the TSRTC has yielded notable results, with daily passengers reporting a substantial increase in occupancy rates ranging from 70 to 90 percent. Recent data from TSRTC supports these claims, indicating a surge in the number of passengers, from 32 lakh to over 45 lakh. While the initiative has been successful in attracting more commuters, it has also led to an influx of feedback from daily passengers urging an improvement in bus frequency.

“Sankranti is a major festival for our two Telugu states, every year we make a point to visit my village, but this year due to heavy rush we were unable to book tickets and now we are forced to catch any random bus,” said Srinivas, a passenger, who was traveling to Rajahmundry.

“For the past one hour, we were waiting for Visakhapatnam bus to arrive, however, after delay in its arrival TSRTC officials have claimed that they have increased buses but it is very low, it will be better during the festive season to control the crowd, transport department should come up with special arrangements,” said Rahul Reddy, a passenger who was waiting for the bus at JBS.

Meanwhile, a senior officer of TSRTC, said, “The number of passengers is expected to be higher than in previous years on account of the Mahalakshmi scheme. During the last Sankranti rush, the TSRTC transported 2.82 crore passengers.

To cope with the festive rush, all necessary arrangements have been made to take citizens safely to their destinations and measures were in place to ensure that passengers do not face any inconvenience and also few special buses have been added up, a total of 4,484 buses are plying in various destinations that include Vijayawada, Kurnool, and Rajahmundry and many more.

TSRTC has made arrangements for the departure of buses to respective destinations from Aramghar, L.B. Nagar, KPHB, Gachibowli, Jubilee Bus Station, MGBS, Uppal and Bowenpally. Also, at the bus stations, mobile toilets have been set up and for emergency purposes, a small health camp has been set up.”