Hyderabad: It is a double whammy for the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) as it was dealing with huge losses post lockdown after the first wave and is yet again dealing with a decrease in earnings as well as occupancy due to lockdown following the second wave.
Speaking to siasat.com, senior officials in the TSRTC said that the Corporation was about to achieve its revenue target for the just concluded financial year, but crisis loomed again after the second wave of COVID-19 forced lockdown.
Presently, the TSRTC is operating buses from 6 am to 10 am during the relaxation hours across the state . However, due to lack of occupancy as a large number of people are not patronizing the public transport due to limited operating hours and fear of COVID-19 spread, the earnings of the TSRTC have come down drastically .
The official informed that the TSRTC were operating only 1100 buses daily in the state as against the 4000 buses before lockdown. The average occupancy of the buses per trip is only 45 passengers.
The earning per kilometer is just over Rs. 25 during the last several days which is 72 percent less than the normal. Total earnings reduced to Rs. 60 to 70 lakhs, as against Rs. 4 crore on an average per day.
The occupancy is below 25 percent and instead of doing 4 to 5 trips the buses are operating only two trips as relaxation time is only 4 hours.
In Hyderabad alone, TSRTC is operating 800 buses, including 200 special buses for medical staff, sanitation workers, and other essential service providers.
However, with the help of the state government, TSRTC is looking to pay salaries of the staff and is looking to work out a package to overcome the losses in the long run.