Chief Minister's Comments Leave RTC Disappointed

Hyderabad: The Telangana Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) was waiting for a one time settlement in the state budget to bail it out from a financial mess, however, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's comments on Thursday left the Corporation disappointed.

Losses of the TSRTC mounted to Rs. 2,500 crore with an additional Rs. 150 crore as annual interest. Added to this is the Rs. 550 crore losses of the current financial year incurred as of January 2016 . The financial troubles of the Corporation were compounded last year when the State government announced a 44 percent 'fitment' to RTC employees. This shot up the losses to Rs. 2,500 crore from Rs. 1,500 crore.
At a review meeting on Thursday, the Chief Minister was briefed about the financial condition of the RTC by its Joint Managing Director Ramana Rao. After the briefing, the Chief Minister said that the RTC should not expect the government to bail it out everytime. He called on the Corporation to promote internal resources to generate revenue. He also suggested that the RTC should introduce more mini buses across the state to generate revenue. Also, services should be introduced in the long distance sectors such as Hyderabad-Mumbai and Hyderabad-Shirdi among others, he said.
However, the Chief Minister was said to be cautious in not referring to the assurances he gave last year when the 44 per cent fitment was announced. Besides the suggestions, he also did not speak about the much anticipated one time bail out package.
As their hopes started drying up, RTC officials hoped that they would be reimbursed atleast the subsidises they give to the students and others in the form of bus passes. The subsidy expenditure itself amounts to Rs. 500 this year. Added to this is the need to purchase new buses worth Rs. 40 crore. The TSRTC now expects a bare minimum bail out of Rs. 540 crore in the State budget this year.