RTC clueless on road to recovery

- APSRTC officials brainstorm for 10 days but fail to come up with a plan to wriggle out of financial crisis
- According to sources, the transport corporation accumulated losses of Rs 3,520 crore by the end of August, 2016

Vijayawada: The 10-day long brainstorming session of top brass of Andhra Pradesh Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) completed without yielding any result on how to overcome the losses worth thousands of crores being suffered by RTC. The RTC officials and trade unions are clueless how to overcome the huge financial crisis which is increasing year by year.

A report is being readied by the RTC management to submit the government citing the entire situation and seeking government help to stable the financial condition and run into profits. According to sources, RTC accumulated losses of Rs 3,520 crore by end of August 2016. The losses were Rs 3,174 crore by end of March, 2016.

Of them, the organisation took loans of Rs 2,328 crore from various banks to run the corporation till now. As per borrowing conditions, the State-owned corporation has to repay total amount within six years. The loan installment is Rs 600 crore per year which includes loan installments and interest.

As the RTC was not in a position to repay the loans and also needs additional funds for other needs, the corporation has been borrowing an amount from another bank which became a continues process to the corporation for some years, an official said However, the RTC has recorded an utter failure in increasing volume growth which was one of the key reasons for the financial crisis of the organisation.

As per an internal report prepared by the RTC board, the private transport sector (private buses and some other vehicles) recorded 545 per cent volume growth in recent years while the RTC was limited to only 17 per cent volume growth.

It is fact the RTC has failed in increase its operations to catch up the growing transport market during the last 10 years.

As per the confidential report, 40 per cent of total passengers in the State travelled by RTC buses, but it is now reduced to just 10 per cent.

Whereas, private sector is running 648 buses from Hyderabad to different parts of the State and another 1,662 private buses are running in the State (except Hyderabad). The approximate business of private buses is Rs 2,000 crore, but the RTC which has plenty of resources and network is confined to only Rs 280 crore business, lamented an official.

Experts say that it is clear that the RTC has been suffering losses as it fails to tap the growing market and did not increase buses to complete with private sector.

At the same time, the State-owned corporation had to bear additional burden of Rs 286 crore under the account of increased salaries, DA arrears. But the officials are merely showing the recent drop of four per cent of occupancy rate to cover the mistakes.

RTC employee union state deputy general secretary Y V Rao said that government should find a permanent solution to resolve the crises and repay the loans of RTC to the banks under one time settlement.

He said it will be impossible to overcome the financial burden even by increasing 100 per cent in any other forms. An official said RTC have to increase new buses immediately to capture the private market.