Bus fares to go up in Telangana

Hyderabad, Dec 1:  The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) has submitted a proposal to the state government to increase the hike in bus fares.

The state-owned transport operator has mooted a hike of 25 paise per km for ordinary service including 'Palle Velugu' (rural) services and 30 paise per km for express and higher services including city services.

Transport Minister P. Ajay Kumar finalised the proposal on Wednesday during a meeting with TSRTC Chairman Bajireddy Govardhan, Managing Director V.C. Sajannar and other officials.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Reddy will take a final decision on the proposal.

The minister said after the meeting that the hike in bus fare was inevitable in view of the continuing losses suffered by TSRTC.

He said the gap between the TSRTC revenue and expenditure has significantly widened during the last three years. The transport entity suffered a loss of Rs 4,260 crore during the period.

The Transport Minister defended the proposed hike saying there was no other option in view of the mounting losses.

During 2018-19, the TSRTC's revenue was Rs 4,882 crore while the expenditure was Rs 5,811. The revenue was Rs 4,592 crore against the total expenditure of Rs 5,594 crore during 2019-20.

In 2020-21, the transport organisation suffered a loss of Rs 2,329 as it earned only Rs 2,455 crore against the total expenditure of Rs 4,784 crore.

If the government accepts the TSRTC proposal to enhance the fare, it is expected to earn an additional Rs 850 crore.

Bajireddy Goverdhan said that the TSRTC was burdened by the hike in diesel prices. He said the TSRTC had to increase the fares due to the policies adopted by the Central government. He appealed to people to understand that there is no other option for the organisation.

The TSRTC had earlier proposed to increase the fare by 40 paise per km but last month amended the proposal after a drop in prices of diesel and petrol following the Centre's move to cut the excise duty.

During a meeting with the Chief Minister in October, the officials had informed him that the price of diesel increased by Rs 22 per litre in the last one and a half years, adding an additional burden of Rs 550 crore on the TSRTC.