Talks between the top officials of the Road Transport Corporations (RTCs) of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana remained inconclusive on Tuesday.
APSRTC Vice-Chairman and Managing Director M.T. Krishna Babu met his Telangana counterpart Sunil Sharma in Hyderabad in an attempt to break the ice and resume inter-State operations, which were stopped after declaration of lockdown on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The discussions hit a fresh roadblock with the Telangana officials broaching the issue of “route parity along with parity in kilometres.”
“Except route-wise and kilometre parity, there is no other issue. Our Executive Directors have done a detailed study, which has been conveyed to the APSRTC,” said Mr. Sunil Sharma, emerging from the talks.
‘No clarity’
Mr. Krishna Babu, speaking to the media, said that APSRTC buses operate on 71 routes in Telangana, while the neighbouring State runs its vehicles only on 28 routes in A.P.
“Route-wise parity does not exist in any State agreements. There is no clarity. We need to see what Telangan expects from us, whether it will offer to run its buses on 71 routes in A.P. or ask us to operate only on 28 routes in that State,” said Mr. Krishna Babu, adding that the APSRTC EDs would study the technical issues involved before meeting for the next round of talks.
The Andhra Pradesh government had agreed in principle on parity in km, but with Telangana broaching the parity in routes issue, the discussions hit a new roadblock.
According to the A.P. Reorganisation Act, 2014, both the States can operate buses without any permit for five years. But the operations had to be stopped due to the lockdown.
From covering a distance of 3.73 lakh km in Telangana in the past, the APSRTC reduced its operations there to 2.64 lakh km, while TSRTC increased its operations from 95,000 km to 1.52 lakh km in A.P. The stalemate is over a difference of 1.10 lakh km.
