Smaller RTC but losses only grow

Hyderabad: Despite Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao allowing a ticket fare hike, the RTC is anticipating a Rs 900-crore loss in 2016-17, which is Rs 200 crore more than last year.

The RTC earns Rs 9.5 crore per day and spends a little over Rs 11 crore. per day. The fare hike is expected to give up to Rs 280 crore if the occupancy ratio continues at 70 per cent.

A union leader said RTC used to record Rs 900-crore losses annually. “A Rs 900-crore loss after the formation of Telangana is on the higher side.

National Mazdoor Union leader Nageshwar Rao wanted an expert committee constituted to improve earnings and curtain spending. The RTC had put aside a similar report filed in 2005.

TSRTC chairman S. Satyanarayana said the loss estimate was based on the payout of Rs 220 crore as the second installment of revised pay scales. The first installment was given earlier during the year.

“The state government is also going to extend financial support to the RTC for purchase of new buses. We have decided to reduce number of services on loss-making routes and deploy those buses on routes with high passenger demand,” he said.

Mini buses would be introduced on routes where in the occupancy ratio is less, Mr Satyanarayana said.

“We are studying the category of mini buses having 18 to 22 seats with better fuel efficiency than the regular RTC bus. On such routes, bigger buses can be replaced with mini buses,” he said.

The regular buses give  a mileage of a little over 5 km per litre compared with nearly 7 km per litre for mini buses,” the RTC chairman said. The corporation was looking at other measures to raise revenues and curtail expenditure.