Hyderabad out of bounds for private buses

Hyderabad: Private buses will not be allowed to park on city roads. They will have to confine themselves to Outer Ring Road. The passengers bound for various destinations in these private buses would be ferried to them by TS RTC buses. Transport Minister P Mahender Reddy on Wednesday directed the officials to strictly implement the rule of not allowing the private travel buses into city and that they would have to park beyond ORR limits.

The minister had earlier asked the officials to ensure that no buses park on city roads as it was causing traffic congestion and inconvenience to the people. With officials failing to tame the operators of private buses, the minister asked the officials to implement his orders. He pointed out that RTC would run buses for the convenience of the people. Special focus would be on coordination between the transport and the RTC officials, he added.

The minister said that all the transport offices would have own buildings within a year. Out of the 54 transport offices in the state only 16 have own buildings. The minister expressed his unhappiness over the delay in identifying land for the buildings in Medak. The district officials said that land identification was completed for 18 offices and the process of identification was on for the 12 other places.

The minister asked the officials to book cases against vehicles if they resort to overloading or involved in rash driving, risking the lives of passengers. He wanted the officials to take steps to avoid road accidents and also stress on road safety. Regarding the single permit issue of the lorry owners, the minister said that a committee would visit AP to take a decision.