The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation has initiated a series of measures, including introduction of 1,334 hired buses, to reduce operational costs and improve efficiency.
These buses are being hired from private entrepreneurs to cater to the needs of passengers in place of buses that were being diverted for the cargo services proposed to be introduced shortly. The corporation has identified potential traffic generation points in all depots where employees are being posted as traffic guides to guide the passengers.
Announcements are being made to announce arrival timings of buses through hand held mikes and efforts are on to make the buses observe “halt & go” by stopping the bus for few minutes to facilitate more number of passengers to board the bus and avoid bunching of buses to maintain even frequency, Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar said.
Replying to queries during the Question Hour in the Legislative Assembly on Friday, the Minister said the corporation was implementing passenger friendly initiatives like “halt & go”, “shout & load”, “hail & board” and “alight on request” to improve occupancy ratio and realise more revenue. Senior officers of the corporation were adopting loss making depots to improve profitability of the depots as well as the corporation.
Youth trained
Labour and Employment Minister Ch. Malla Reddy said a total of 18,501 youth of the 23,047 enrolled were given skill development training. Of these, 5,964 youth had been given placements under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana Centrally Sponsored State Managed (PMKVY-CSSM) scheme.
The Central government had sanctioned ₹71.13 crore to the State under the scheme and only ₹22.94 crore had been released so far. The State was yet to get the balance ₹48 crore, he told the Legislative Assembly.
Overseas scholarship
Social Welfare Minister Koppula Eshwar informed the Legislative Assembly that the government had spent ₹230.4 crore under the Chief Minister Overseas Scholarship Scheme providing financial assistance to poor students from minority communities to pursue their higher studies in foreign universities.
Replying to queries, the Minister said the government selected 1,685 students for the scholarship so far and the government had made provision of ₹42 crore for the scheme in the next financial year. When asked about enhancing the number of students beyond the stipulated 500, he said the government would consider the enhancement once the limit was reached. “The existing quota of 500 is not being filled. The government will consider increasing the number after the number of students crosses 500,” he said.
