Date:16/10/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/10/16/stories/2007101650170100.htm

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Raw deal for bus travellers in State

S. Sandeep Kumar

File Photo: K. Ramesh Babu

Big rush: Commuters at the Mahatma Gandhi bus station which caters to one lakh commuters in Hyderabad daily.

HYDERABAD: The inadequacy of APSRTC in operating additional services this festive season coupled with the ongoing special drive by Regional Transport Authority (RTA) against private bus operators has led to severe inconvenience to native place-bound commuters.

While APSRTC officials say that over 200 additional buses were pressed into service to avoid inconvenience, commuters say that a majority of the additional services operated are ordinary type and this made them to opt for private services.

“The other advantage with private operators is flexibility -- they operate services even at late night which RTC lacks. It is easier to board a bus in twin cities at nine or ten p.m. than six or seven in the evening,” says P. Keshavulu, a commuter.

Moreover, commuters had to shell out extra fare in special RTC buses till Sunday. However, following instructions from Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the authorities will waive the extra fare from Monday.

On the other hand, lack of private bus operations has resulted in increase in fare this season. “I paid Rs. 50 extra to reach Visakhapatnam from Hyderabad just because I could not board a 7.30 p.m. RTC bus to Vizag on Saturday after which there is no other RTC bus to Vizag,” says Venu Madhav, a commuter and a private college lecturer at Visakhapatnam. Over 180 private buses were seized and 450 cases booked by authorities till date ever since the drive commenced on October 6 across the State for violating Motor Vehicles Act like overloading, transporting goods in passenger buses and using their buses as transport carriages while having a stage carriage permit.

The luckier ones among private operators, whose buses were not seized, were taking advantage of the situation and charging excess fares.

Buses seized

“On an average, we operate 26 buses to different destinations daily and three of our buses were seized by the RTA authorities during the drive. Likewise, every travel agency has lost at least two buses and this is only making matters worse for the commuters,” says Nageswara Rao, a travel agent.