KARIMNAGAR: The APSRTC chairman, Gone Prakash Rao, said that an action plan would be chalked out to tide over crisis in the corporation in five years after the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore, submitted a report in October second week.

Talking to newsmen here on Sunday, he said that the IIM experts had studied the functioning of the corporation and would submit a report to ensure profits for RTC. Reiterating that the State Government had decided not to increase the bus fares despite steep hike in petroleum prices, he said that the fuel expenditure of the Corporation had gone up from Rs. 798 crores in 2003 to Rs. 1,218 crores this year, with the latest fuel price hike.

"We do not want to increase the bus fares. We only want to the increase the occupancy ratio (OR) of the buses to accrue profits," he pointed out and added that one per cent increase of OR (now 62 per cent) would earn Rs. 50 crores for the corporation.

Employees' strike

Asked about the proposed strike by the RTC employees, he said that the employees were seeking wage hike. They were seeking a hike of Rs. 250 per head and it would burden the Government to the tune of Rs. 40 crores. The Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajashekhara Reddy, had urged the employees for wait for at least another year for a wage hike, he said adding that the Government had already given Rs. 440 crores to the RTC and another Rs. 100 crores was given as loan without interest. The DCC president, T Santosh Kumar was also present.

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