TSRTC ready to transport migrant workers

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) authorities said they will be ready in two days if government asks to operate buses to facilitate the transportation of migrants but said that it would be difficult to maintain physical distancing as the occupancy ratio will fall below 30 per cent making it a costly affair.

A senior official in the Corporation said that they were yet to receive instructions from the government on operation of buses but they would get them ready within two days if the government directs them.

The officials were also not sure about the payment whether the Corporation has to bear the expenditure of diesel etc. The official said that it was not clear how long the buses would have to be operated in the routes as most of the migrants were from Bihar, Jharkhand and other northern states.

The official said that operating buses by maintaining physical distancing was a difficult task and would prove expensive for the Corporation.

A senior official told The Hans India that if the Corporation has to maintain social distancing then they would have to make single passenger to sit in a seat.

"We have ten rows and each row can accommodate five passengers on both sides with 50 passengers. If the physical distancing is maintained the bus will have to carry only 20 passengers reducing the occupancy ratio to 40 per cent," said an executive director.

The official further said that there may be passengers in the upward direction but in return there would be no passengers which would mean the occupancy ratio falls below 20.

The official said that all precautions could be taken in the transportation of passengers like sanitising the buses. The Corporation has already made a sanitising bus where disinfectants would be sprayed on the passengers.