All steps taken to plug loopholes in APSRTC: MD

Vijayawada: Expressing satisfaction over the performance of the state-owned Road Transportation Corporation (APSRTC) after he assumed charge two months back, N V Surendra Babu, vice-chairman and managing director of APSRTC, said here on Friday that the committed staff have been striving hard to increase the occupancy ratio of bus services throughout the state.

Talking to newsmen after completion of 60 days in office, Surendra Babu said that he believed that if the employees are happy the organisation would grow leaps and bounds. The RTC, which suffered a loss of Rs 790 crore last year, has incurred Rs 440 crore this year, he pointed out and said that every precaution is being made to plug loopholes and contain the loss.

Referring to welfare measures taken up for the employees, the MD said the retired employees would be paid settlement emoluments on the last working day by collating the data of his service. Likewise, efforts are on to sanction them pension also on the day of retirement, he added.

Stating that he had instructed the officials to solve all the 4,100 pending applications regarding staff retirement benefits scheme in one month, he said efforts are on to identify peak and non-peak service timings to increase the occupancy ratio which would help increase the revenue.

The MD said the passengers could call the RTC officials to inform their problems. The officials should interact with the passengers to learn their problems, he added. Expressing concern over the raising price of diesel which is eating into the profits of RTC, he said decision has not been taken to pass on the burden to commuters.

“Other avenues are being considered to take on the crisis of high price of diesel,” he said. Referring to leave problem, the MD said that on-call system is under consideration to use the services of retired drivers in case of many drivers availing leave. “The depot managers and the staff were instructed to sanction leave to employees whenever they ask,” he said.