The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Closure of depots is part of restructuring, says RTC MD

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 06, 2007
ePaper

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Closure of depots is part of restructuring, says RTC MD

Staff Reporter

Based on committee's report closed depots can be re-opened: Dinesh Reddy

V. Dinesh Reddy

HYDERABAD: The closure of APSRTC depots was only a part of the re-structuring aimed at helping it to go on the road to profits, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director V. Dinesh Reddy told a press conference here on Friday.

Referring to the closure of eight bus depots and the proposal to shut down some more, he said a committee, comprising four Executive Directors and representatives of the recognised National Mazdoor Union, would study every closure. "Even if an iota of profitability is found, we will re-open the depots within minutes," he said.

Mr. Reddy said the decision was based on the recommendations of experts of the Indian Institute of Manageement (IIM), Bangalore. Stating that these depots were making losses, he said profitability was not the only reason for closure.

He recalled that while two depots---Madhira and Kothagudam (Khammam district) --were making losses, the RTC had closed only the former keeping in view its social responsibility. The Kothagudem depot was allowed to run because it was the nerve-centre of the district.

Profit

The MD made presentations to show as to how revenue had improved after the closure of Kovvur depot (West Godavari) and Dubbaka (Medak). In the case of Kovvur, buses had to make an 11-km `empty run' to Rajahmundry with every service daily. Hence, removing this `dead mileage' by moving those buses to Rajahmundry made more sense. Likewise, buses from Dubbaka to destinations like Hyderabad were never full. Moving them to Medak and Siddipet had straightaway fetched additional revenue.

Mr. Reddy pointed out that in December, 2006, the leanest month in terms of revenue, the corporation had made a profit of over Rs.1 crore. This was purely due to the dedicated efforts of the workforce, he said. According to the audited results until November, 2005, RTC had made Rs. 126.86-crore profit, a rare achievement.

He said soon the city would get at least seven or eight more depots. Depots would come up soon at Bhupalapalli in Eturunagaram of Warangal and Chevella in Ranga Reddy district.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh