Integrated transport will take a toll on TSRTC: Unions

​Hyderabad: The employee unions of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation are against the idea of integration of all transport modes in the city. The union leaders argued that there was a risk for which RTC would have to pay a heavy price and lose passengers to Metro and other transportation modes if integration was carried out.

It may be recalled that the State government has formed a task force committee on transport for ensuring first and last mile connectivity to the citizens. The idea was to provide have a common ticket for all modes of transport like RTC, MMTS, Metro Rail and other facilities like Ola, Uber, autos etc.

Stating that transport authorities were concentrating on Metro by ignoring the RTC, the union leaders said that they were against the idea of integrating all transport modes.

Telangana Jathiya Mazdoor Union (TJMU) general secretary K Hanumanthu questioned as to how RTC would make money if transport modes are clubbed when it as a separate entity has failed to make profits. “Sharing of profits will eventually make the RTC to suffer more,” he said, adding that the Corporation has already been in losses due to onslaught of illegal transport services from private operators.

Stating that the government was not increasing the number of buses leading to passengers opting for private and individual vehicles, he said, “No new buses are added to the fleet in the last 10 years. Only the buses which are scrapped are being replaced. In such case, how the profits will increase?”. Another leader said that if the transport facilities were integrated, the RTC would have to play a second fiddle.

Some of the officials also believe that the common ticketing facility would mean sharing of revenue of the Corporation. Source said that the officials were going slow on the combined ticket since it would not benefit the Corporation. Instead, the officials want the RTC to be separate and want increased fleet of buses with the support of the government.