Officials of the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) are trying to break the stalemate with their Telangana counterparts over the issue of “parity of distance” to be able to resume bus operations to the neighbouring State.
The standoff on the issue has lasted for some time with the Telangana RTC asking the Andhra Pradesh side to reduce the volume of its operations in Telangana space, while maintaining that it would not increase volume of its Andhra Pradesh-bound buses.
Inter-State agreement
The inter-State bus services between the two Telugu States is operational on the basis of ad hoc provisions, applicable till the expiry of the permits held by the operators as on the day of the formation of a separate Telangana State. The expiry of most permits has necessitated regularisation of the operations through an inter-State agreement.
Though the two sides made an attempt to reach an inter-State agreement by addressing the “parity of operations” issue, the bone of contention for resuming bus services between the two States, during the lockdown period, the discussions ended in a deadlock.
As many as 1,009 buses from the fleet of the APSRTC criss-cross the road network in Telangana, covering 2.65 lakh km of distance, while the buses of the neighbouring state cover a distance of only 1.5 lakh km in Andhra Pradesh.
The APSRTC has responded to its Telangana counterpart's suggestion that Andhra Pradesh reduce the volume of its operations by 250 buses by suggesting that instead, Telangana could think of increasing the number of its buses travelling to Andhra Pradesh.
Unanimity has also eluded on the APSRTC suggestion that it would reduce its operations in Telangana by 52,000 buses and the latter increase the volume by same number of buses to achieve a parity. “They are not ready to cover an increased distance in Andhra Pradesh beyond the current 1.52 lakh km and want us to reduce our space in their state to 1.52 lakh km. This will tantamout to losing a distance of 1 lakh km and it will cause heavy inconvenience to the public,” said an official from the Operations wing of APSRTC.
Buses from the APSRTC touch some 100 depots in the neighbouring district. “But they don’t look beyond Vijayawada and a few district headquarters. They don't touch our interior areas,” said the official.
While the two transport bodies struggle to find a common ground, the wait gets longer for people eager to use the public transport system to visit their families and friends in the neighbouring State.
