Hyderabad: Students struggle to board jampacked RTC buses

Hyderabad: The school and college students hanging or foot boarding in RTC buses has become a common sight. With many educational institutions lying in peripheral areas, students commuting from the city are facing hardships to travel in already packed RTC buses. Many of them said that the RTC was operating a few buses on several stretches forcing them to wait for hours to catch the bus. Many students heading towards Vikarabad, Ibrahimpatnam, Shamshabad Moinabad, Kukatpally and Medchal are struggling daily due to inadequate number of buses. They have requested the TSRTC MD, VC Sajjanar, to increase the frequency of buses.

According to TSRTC officials due to Covid pandemic, many educational institutions have stopped operating their buses. As a result, the students were now dependent on RTC buses.

"Every day, I am forced to wait for the bus for at least for half-an-hour to one hour. Due to inadequate number of buses, we are forced to board overcrowded buses and also many times, students suffer injuries in the melee. It will be better if TSRTC increases the frequency of the buses," said Roja, an engineering student, who travels from Uppal to Koti.

"We are forced to do foot boarding. In Shamshabad area, there are no ordinary buses plying and all we can see is only metro buses. As we are college students and have ordinary passes, we are forced to wait for ordinary buses till they arrive. As a result, we are getting late to reach our destinations and also many times due to this issue we have missed our classes, especially the first period," said T Suresh, another daily passenger.

Meanwhile, V Venkateshwarlu, executive director, TSRTC, Greater Hyderabad zone said, "At present, 2,500 buses are plying in city limits. With our limited resources, we are trying to arrange adequate number of buses. For every three to four minutes, we are providing buses, especially where the educational institutions are situated. We are ensuring that footboard traveling should not happen and to that extent, we are also plying spare buses during the peak hours."