Nellore RTC suspends AC buses to Hyderabad, Bengaluru

Nellore: Although AP State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) authorities have restored services to Bengaluru and Hyderabad from Nellore and Prakasam districts from July 1, air-conditioned buses have been confined to their respective depots due to a lack of patronage.

According to corporation officials, this has arisen because passengers fear the possibility of catching the dreaded Covid virus while travelling in AC vehicles.

P.V. Seshaiah, regional manager of Nellore region, said that they have decided to suspend AC services to Bengaluru and Hyderabad and a sleeper bus to Bengaluru after they found that only two or three passengers were reserving seats per trip.

He said they are operating 16 super-deluxe buses to Bengaluru and six to Hyderabad.  He pointed out that services have not been restored for Chennai because of Tamil Nadu government has imposed restrictions on inter-state services till July 7.

However, 20 odd buses are being operated up to the border of Tamil Nadu near Tada in Nellore district to enable passengers to catch TN-run buses from Arambakkam, a village abutting Bhimulavaripalem.

“Tamil Nadu authorities have been running additional services to Chennai from the border for the benefit of passengers coming from our side” , Seshaiah said. He has put the loss to the region because of lockdown at `1.5 crore per month in the last three months.

Regional manager for Prakasam region, G. Vijaya Geetha, said that they were not operating AC services to Bengaluru and Hyderabad but only to short distances like up to Vijayawada.

She said they had restored only 60 per cent of their regular services in view of the 6 pm to 6 am curfew in some districts. She said the region suffered monthly losses to the tune of `28 crore because of the lockdown.