Lockdown: TSRTC operations, earnings go down drastically

Hyderabad: There are hard times ahead for the employees of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) as the Covid-induced lockdown reduced the earnings of the corporation with 36 per cent and occupancy ratio have been slashed by 67 per cent.

The TSRTC is operating buses from 6 am to 10 am during th relaxation hours across the State. However, with lack of patronage from the passengers in wake of the lockdown and people avoiding public transport, the earnings have come down drastically in the last one week.

According to sources, the Corporation on an average is operating the buses in about 3 lakh kilometers. For instance, the Corporation operated over 3.1 lakh kilometers on May 17. Sources said that the Corporation could operate 204.3 kms from May 1 to 17. The operations this time are more compared to previous year because the buses were not operated till September.

Sources said that the earnings per kilometer too have come down during the lockdown period. The earnings per kilometer on May 17 were just over Rs 28 and during the last 17 days was Rs 25, which is 72 per cent less than the normal. The Corporation is facing a loss of Rs 38.5 per kilometer.

On the occupancy ratio side, the OR was 54 per cent on May 17 and during the last 17 days the OR has been around 47 per cent, which is 73 per cent less than the normal days.

The union leaders said that the Corporation was suffering to pay salaries in time and was getting delayed with higher occupancy ratio but the situation is likely to get worse with limited number of buses and operations.

According to the officials, the earning per day during the month of January was Rs 9.5 crore after the corona effect receded in the first wave. "We were planning to increase the revenue but in the mean time the second wave affected the Corporation badly," said a senior official in the Corporation.