RTC buses preferred by people

Rajahmundry: Given the increasing number of mishaps involving private Volvo buses claiming several lives in the recent past at Palem in Mahbubnagar district and also at Hoskote near Bangalore, passengers are preferring safety to luxury and speed and the best bet is the state road transport corporation in Godavari districts.

A large number of passengers who used to travel by private Volvo buses, mainly to Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Tirupati and other metros located at long distance from these districts are preferring to travel by only RTC buses.

In case they are able to get tickets in the limited number of Volvo buses being run by the RTC, they are travelling in such buses and otherwise, they are booking tickets to the next best alternative buses like super luxury.

The RTC authorities maintain that they imposed speed limit on Volvo buses to ensure that the passengers should reach their destination safely and there is close watch on drivers too to see that they should not be overburdened with double or multiply duty to make them restless and feel drowsy while driving the vehicles, especially during night time and cause accidents.

The Sankranti festival has come in handy to the RTC to prove its capability to run more number of services, mainly from and to Hyderabad and several parts in Godavari districts.

In West Godavari, RTC ran 332 additional buses from and to Hyderabad during festive days by covering nearly 2.64 lakh km distance and earned revenue worth Rs 71 lakh.

They earned Rs 26.84 per km and their occupancy ratio was recorded at 76%. In the last Sankranti, RTC ran 193 additional services by covering a distance of 1.48 lakh km and earned revenue worth Rs 36.33 lakh.

It registered earnings per km worth Rs 24.45 and occupancy ratio of 78%. When we take a comparative look at both the years, RTC enhanced the number of additional buses by 139 and covered 1.15 lakh km distance additionally and earned additional revenue worth Rs 34.66 lakh. Its earnings per kilometer had gone up to Rs 2,990.

West Godavari RTC regional manager R. Rama Rao said, “This is quite evident that more passengers are preferring our services as we enhanced the number of our buses and earned more revenue when compared to last festive season. We appeal to people to continue their patronage to our services as we assure safe journey to them.”

In East Godavari, RTC ran nearly 800 additional services this season when compared to only 300 services last year.

The RTC authorities maintain that the occupancy ratio in super luxury buses running for long distances is going up. Given the enhanced patronage, they are planning to run more number of buses to long distance.

On the other hand, the road transport authorities are continuing their drive to seize private Volvo buses for violation of road safety norms.