Hyderabad: RTC adds to Monday blues for commuters

Hyderabad: It was a chaotic Monday morning for many in Hyderabad. Schools and colleges opened after Dasara vacations, which were prolonged by a week because of the ongoing TSRTC employees’ strike. People had to wait for a long time at bus stops.

Confusion prevailed as many students and their parents did not know if they could depend on bus services. At Lakdikapul, students as well as office-goers spent the better part of an hour craning their necks to see if any bus was approaching. Irshad, a degree college student in Ameerpet, had been waiting at the bus stop for 40 minutes. “I started at Koti. On a normal day, there is never any shortage of buses there. Today, there were only a handful of buses and they were all packed,” he said.

Kiran Kumar, an intermediate student, had come from Chikkadapally in a share auto. “I didn’t find a single bus on the RTC X Roads-Indira Park route. Share autos never operate there, but they did today; I paid `20 to get here,” he said.

Kumar, who works for a private company, said he had been waiting for an hour for a bus to take him to Tolichowki.

To make things worse, a bus stalled right in the middle of the busy Lakdikapul bus bay. Its conductor politely asked some young men standing on the footboard to get down and push the bus.

There were large crowds at Koti, but there were considerably fewer buses than usual. Several commuters said they did not usually board the bus at Koti and one of them, a mechanic living in Chaderghat, said he thought he had a better chance of getting a bus here. “There were very few buses in my locality. I thought I had a better chance of finding a bus going to Secunderabad from here; I came in an auto,” he said.

Others who overheard the conversation nodded in agreement; one of them said he had come from Malakpet for the same reason. As the day progressed, however, things got better. By late afternoon, far more buses were visible on the road than in the morning. Mr K.S. Khan, TSRTC regional manager for Hyderabad, said services were hit in the morning due to unforeseen circumstances. “At some depots, we had some employees come in and confront the management. Service was affected at Uppal depot when an employee and his family tried to enter the premises. But by the afternoon, things became more streamlined,” he said. Mr Khan claimed that around 54 per cent of its buses were being operated.

A senior TSRTC official from Secunderabad region said around 49 per cent of its buses had been operated through the day. “We send a bus onto the route as soon as a (private) driver turns up for duty. We are struggling to find enough drivers,” he admitted. However, even in the evening, there were still many commuters who had trouble finding a bus. At Koti, Ms Archana picked up her son from school and waited for a bus for nearly 30 minutes. “If a bus doesn’t come in another 10 minutes, I will take an auto,” she said.

At Secunderabad, on the road going towards Clock Tower, Sai, a degree college student, had waited for almost 40 minutes for a bus that could take him to Bowenpally. When one finally came, it was packed to the brim and he had to stand on the footboard.