Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) Vice-Chairman and Managing Director R.P. Thakur said the corporation has cancelled some services due to drop in Occupancy Ratio (OR) in the wake of a spurt in COVID-19 cases.
“Depot Managers (DMs) have been empowered to cancel services on routes where there was no traffic, and instructions have been given to operate buses with only 50% capacity,” Mr. Thakur said.
“In all, 114 APSRTC employees have died, including 21 in the second wave, due to COVID-19, and 6,790 employees have been infected with the virus across the State, with 1,090 of them contracting the virus in the last 45 days. We are taking all steps to provide protection to our employees and officers,” Mr. Thakur told The Hindu on Monday.
Instructions have been given to employees to wear double masks, take the vaccine, follow COVID precautions, conduct awareness on prevention of the virus at all bus stations and run buses as per demand, he informed.
“On April 25, the OR had fallen to 43%. We are giving top priority to the safety of employees and passengers. Officers have been directed to sanitise bus stations and buses with sodium hypochlorite regularly, ensure wearing of masks, using sanitisers and maintaining social distancing,” Mr. Thakur said, thanking Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy for treating APSRTC employees as frontline workers and giving them priority in vaccination.
Chief Personnel Manager (CPM-incharge) D. Samrajyam said that APSRTC was providing medicines to the employees at all RTC district and regional dispensaries, and treating emergency cases at the APSRTC State Hospital in Vijayawada.
“We are providing consultation through phone and specialist doctors are monitoring the health of COVID patients. Besides, treatment is being provided at referral hospitals. Vaccination camps are being arranged at all depots and at the nearest Primary Health Centres (PHC) for our staff,” Ms. Samrajyam said.
Mr. Thakur said the corporation is operating services to Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Odisha according to the conditions laid down by the respective States, and were alerting the passengers on cancellation of services from time to time to avoid any inconvenience.
Meanwhile, few passengers were seen at Pandit Nehru Bus Station (PNBS) in Vijayawada, as well as RTC complexes in Guntur, Machilipatnam, Gudivada and other bus stations on Monday, in the backdrop of a rising number of COVID cases.
