AMARAVATI: APSRTC Guntur region has suffered huge losses due to dropping of occupancy rates from 60 to 50 per cent. The APSRTC blames private vehicles as the main reason for the losses and plans to control these illegal plying of vehicles with the help of other departments. There are 13 depots in Guntur district and APSRTC runs 2,000 services with 8,000 trips but despite taking several measures, illegal private operators have cut in on its revenues.
The seven-seater and three-seater auto rickshaws are the main villains for APSRTC. Around 40,000 auto rickshaws ply in Guntur city of which only 10,000 are local auto-rickshaws and rest from non-local areas. The police and transport departments and Guntur Municipal Corporation earlier decided to stop auto rickshaws in seven places restricting their entry into the city but political interference led to the plan withering down.
According to APSRTC officials, the corporation has incurred Rs 28 crore in revenue loss from April to July this year. Earlier, Guntur and Macharla bus depots used to earn profits but these two depots too started incurring losses.
