Talks between AP, TS RTCs on services end in stalemate

Hyderabad: The talks between road transport corporations of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh ended without any progress on the issue of operating inter-state buses as the TSRTC officials wanted their AP counterparts to operate buses on kilometers and on parity basis.

A meeting of the managing directors and officials of the two corporations was held in the city on Tuesday. According to sources, the TSRTC officials said they wanted kilometer-based and parity-based operations and insisted that both the corporations operate buses equally in both States. Meanwhile, the APSRTC officials decided to decrease some kilometers and wanted the operations to be resumed until the agreement is made.

According to officials, the AP buses are running on 71 routes in Telangana, whereas the Telangana buses are being operated in just 28 routes in AP. The APSRTC officials wanted the operations to be started with 250 buses from both sides between Hyderabad-Vijayawada route in the wake of heavy demand until the agreement is made. However, the TSRTC officials wanted the agreement to be made for all the routes.

Sources said that the APSRTC MD MT Krishna Babu told that further delay in operations would result in profits to the private operators. The TSRTC MD Sunil Sharma said that the route-wise operations would only benefit corporations, said sources. It is learnt that the AP officials have said that they would discuss with their government and respond to the proposal.

Later talking to media, Sunil Sharma said that both the corporations would benefit if the buses were operated route-wise. "If our proposal gets accepted, we are ready to operate buses to Andhra Pradesh," said Sunil Sharma. He said that there was no progress on the AP corporation's proposal to operate 250 buses until the agreement is made.