HYDERABAD: The APSRTC and the South Central Railway authorities will shortly meet to discuss the issue of bringing out a combined rail-bus ticket which would facilitate the commuters to travel in the MMTS services as well as the city buses.

"We will hold a meeting with the SCR General Manager this week and discuss issues of sharing of revenues and operation of buses at peak hours," said APSRTC Vice-Chairman and Managing Director V.Dinesh Reddy. MMTS services were started in 2003 with 47 trains catering to the needs of 10,000 passengers a day. They gradually rose to 46,000 passengers in September 2006. The APSRTC too began to run 50 feeder link bus services to stations after much cajoling. However, RTC later decided to withdraw the feeder services. "We were operating buses at a loss from the beginning because of poor occupancy ratio," says Regional Manager C. Pandu Ranga Murthy. Despite numerous meetings, both organisations were unable to reach a mutually acceptable solution for apportioning of revenue, which is common across cities world over. "The Railways put common pass ticket at Rs.400 with RTC's share being Rs.200. It would be wise for the Railways or the Central Government to reimburse Rs.90 to RTC even after it sustains a loss of Rs. 50 as its general bus pass costs Rs.340," explained Mr.Murthy. Clearing the misconceptions that RTC was not favouring the development of MMTS trains project, Mr. Reddy said, "We would not compete with SCR, rather complement them in operating the train services for the benefit of commuters."

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