TSRTC upping cargo services to shore up revenue

Hyderabad: With revenues through cargo services plunging after bifurcation of the State, the State-run Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) has now decided to review its cargo services in order to get more revenues.

The cargo/parcel services of the TSRTC are being handled by the ANL Parcel Service and the contract with the agency would be coming to an end in a couple of months. In order to increase revenues through parcel services, the RTC management had recently convened a meeting with leading parcel and courier service providers to seek their views on cargo services.

According to officials, the Corporation has been getting revenue of Rs 1.5 crore per year. Through ANL, the Corporation earned Rs 6 crore in the last five years of the contract period. The revenues of the Corporation were good in the united Andhra Pradesh. However, post bifurcation the revenues came down gradually since there were no major towns in Telangana after Hyderabad, whereas the AP had bigger towns like Kakinada, Kurnool, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and others. According to an estimate, the revenues during united Andhra Pradesh were Rs 7.5 crore per annum.

A senior official told The Hans India that the RTC had a wide network of services consisting of over 10,500 buses connecting over 9,000 villages in the State. The cargo service providers can utilise the buses and can reach out to the far away customers.

TSRTC MD G V Ramana Rao said though the revenues have come down after bifurcation, still there was scope for getting more revenues through cargo. He said that about nine companies had shown interest in running the services.

“The meeting was organised to seek their views as to what they need so that the services become profitable for them as well as for RTC,” said Ramana Rao. He further added that the Corporation has demand for cargo services to cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune etc.

The long-distance buses like Garuda have luggage space and the space can be utilised for transporting the cargo, he added. The MD further said that since the contract period of the present company was ending, the management would soon call for tenders and finalise the process within six months.