947 Part 2 of aftermath of collapse of Kesineni Travels, how Mr. Chandra Babu Naidu may or may not handle

In India, road transport system, seems to be in a mixed state in the sense that some States like Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have a well-developed Public Sector Road Transport Corporations equipped with thousands of buses covering thousands of kilometers and carrying millions of passengers everyday, whereas some other States like Bihar, Jharkhand, Eastern Uttar Pradesh have very underdeveloped private sector buses and potholled roof-torn bus stations. States with denser network of railway coverage, seem to be neglecting Public Sector Road Transport Corporations (hereafter I call them RTCs). In those States, politicians owning private bus companies seem to be obstructing the development of public sector RTCs. I had a few occasions of seeing some bus stations in a dilapidated and decaying State. 1) Gaya, Bihar. A District Head Quarter City. 2) Jamshedpur, also popular as Tata City having TISCO (Steel), TELCO (Automobile) Plants. In both the cities, I found the Public Sector RTC Bus stands and RTC Buses in a primitive state of maintenance and development.

ANDHRA PRADESH and TELANGANA STATES

In the United Andhra Pradesh State of prior to 2014 June, Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation used to be very strong, with international and national reputation for various parameters of efficiency. Now, we have two separate RTCs-- Telangana SRTC, and Residual APSRTC. Both the RTCs seem to be incurring operating losses, which are mainly attributable to 1) low occupancy ratios caused by cutthroat competition from Private Bus Companies. 2) High incidence of road and other taxes. 3) Failure of State Governments to compensate / compensate in time, for the concessions extended to various classes of bus pass such as a) student passes b) Govt. Employee passes. 4) Not permitting Public Sector RTCs to raise charges in proportion to increase in costs.

ROLE OF VIJAYAWADA BASED PRIVATE BUS COMPANIES IN MAKING APSRTC SICK

Everybody knows that Vijayawada based Private Bus Companies played a major role in lowering the occupancy ratios of APSRTC Buses. The Private Bus Companies were taking permits to ply CONTRACT Buses (To run them on whole bus contract basis for purposes such as marriages, pilgrimages, with predetermined starting point, terminus, with no intermediate boarding/alighting), but were running them as Stage Carriages (With provision for boarding and alighting by passengers, issuance of tickets enroute, employing conductors on the buses). The Private Bus Companies specialised in HEAVY TRAFFIC LUCRATIVE PROFITABLE ROUTES such as Vijayawada-Hyderabad, Vijayawada-Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada-Bengaluru, Vijayawada-Shirdi. They have no burden of running buses to non-profitable rural routes, called 'palle velugu' in Telugu (English: rural lights). Nor do they have to honour/issue free Student Bus Passes. APSRTC has been burdened with everything. This lacuna, every ruler of Andhra Pradesh, both past, and present, knows. Yet they do not have any sympathy towards APSRTC. On the other hand, rulers themselves have started owning and running Private Bus Companies in hidden-benamy names.

Related Links, and earlier posts

1. Post No. 488 at this blog .

1. Post No. 770 at this blog .

1. Post No. 946 at this blog. . .

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