The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) resumed its city bus services from the 25th of September.
The resumption of Hyderabad and Secunderabad bus services was announced nearly after 6 months of lockdown.
Since the 24th of March, the first nation wide lockdown, the TSRTC is resuming its operations in Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
The operation restarted from Friday with poor occupancy in the buses. The occupancy in buses at the Central Bus Station (CBS,) the major bus station for intercity buses in Hyderabad, was less than 10 passengers per vehicle.
The TSRTC resumed its operations partially in Hyderabad, which was the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the state after a period of six months.
The TSRTC buses went off road on March 22 during the first lockdown. The services, except city services in Hyderabad, were resumed on May 19.
As per the instructions of the State Government, only 25% of the total fleet of buses were carrying passengers. Out of the 3200 odd buses, only 730 resumed service.
The buses which were put into service were sanitized before they embarked on the journey. Depot managers issued strict instructions to drivers and conductors to allow passengers only if they had masks, or covered their faces with handkerchiefs or towels.
The conductors were also provided with a bottle of sanitizer, so that the passengers would first cleanse their hands before any transaction.
“Not many knew that the RTC had resumed its services, so there were hardly any people in bus stands,” said a conductor. She added, “We had to halt at bus stands for longer than usual and ask people to get in.”
CBS Depot Manager, N.Srinivas Rao, said that the lack of publicity, lack of regular train services, colleges not reopening resulted in the poor occupancy. He said, “Usually RTC buses get crowded because of office going employees and students. With no RTC buses, they seem to have made their own transport arrangements, and similarly colleges haven’t reopened, so the occupancy is less.”
Depot Manager Mr. Srinivas said that the ECIL- Afzalgunj, Secunderabad- Afzalgunj, Jeedimetla – Afzalguj and Patancheru- CBS, bus routes had ‘average’ occupancy, and was comparatively better than the others.
The TSRTC Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, executive director, V Venkatesh asked the media to wide publicity regarding the bus routes and the number of buses operational in each route.
Stay tuned for further updates.
