Telangana To Allow Inter-state Buses Only After Making New Agreements

HYDERABAD: The Telangana state government has decided not to resume the airport services along with Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) city buses as of now in view of huge losses. The decision was taken at a review meeting held by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in Pragati Bhavan on Tuesday.

Transport Minister Puvvada Ajayi and officials were present at the meeting. The state government will take a decision over the interstate bus service only after making proper agreements with the other states, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra which share a border with Telangana.

TSRTC is running city buses with huge losses, but in the current situation, the government has decided not to resume the city buses, which will further increase the TSRTC losses.

TSRTC is operating the inter-state bus services to the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka on the basis of the agreement which was made before the bifurcation. As Telangana has been formed into a separate state, now the government has taken the decision to change the agreements with border states to restore interstate bus services to these three states.

Telangana Chief Minister has directed officials to make an agreement with RTC managements of other states that TSRTC buses will run in three of these states depending upon the kilometres that RTC buses from other states were running in Telangana.

Telangana buses of the same categories (Ordinary, Express, Luxury, Super Luxury, Volvo) and the same number of buses and kilometres need to be permitted in other states depending upon their category and number of buses being operated in Telangana from three other states.

According to the reports, it was discussed at the meeting that Telangana RTC has incurred a loss, as the majority of the buses from AP are running in profitable routes of Telangana.

The chief minister has advised the officials to prepare an agreement that will benefit the state. It was reported that the state's Chief Secretary (CS) had been meeting with the CSs of the respective states to discuss over the agreements.