Telangana RTC to acquire more buses: Transport minister

Nalgonda: Transport minister Ponnam Prabhakar on Saturday said the Telangana Road Transport Corporation (TGRTC) would be strengthened to improve the public transport facility in the state.

Flagging off the Rajadhani AC bus and three delux services at the RTC depot here, he said 3,035 employees would be recruited in the corporation and tenders would be called for purchase of another 1,500 buses. He exuded confidence that TGRTC would soon break even.

He said a fleet of 1,000 buses had been purchased for TGSRTC. AC buses from all district headquarters would ply to Hyderabad. If the occupancy ratio allowed it, AC buses would also run to Hyderabad from headquarters of Assembly constituencies, he said, adding AC bus services would also be launched between Nalgonda and Tirupathi.

He promised to sanction 30 deluxe and 30 express services to RTC depots of Nalgonda district by Dasara. At present, TGRTC runs 645 buses from seven bus depots in erstwhile Nalgonda district and three lakh people are using the bus services every day. Past glory would be restored to Narketpally depot which was the first bus depot in Nizam rule, he said.

Stating that the Congress government was committed to the welfare of TGSRTC workers, he pointed out that out of a total of `280 crore arrears of Dearness Allowance (DA), `80 crore has been extended to RTC workers while the remaining `200 crore would be cleared by July end.

Minister for roads and buildings Komatireddy Venkat Reddy said women were provided free travel facility in RTC buses. After Hyderabad, Nalgonda was the biggest district with 35 lakhs population. He asked the transport minister to sanction another 100 new buses to the district.