The expert committee constituted to study the merger of the AP State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) with the government will meet for the first time on Wednesday (June 26) to look into two main aspects – the modalities of the merger and the issues concerned with transforming it into a ‘green’ corporation.

“We will look into the difficulties being faced by the corporation and the reasons why workers want the merger,” C. Anjaneya Reddy, Chairman of the committee, told The Hindu on Sunday.

‘Subsidy burden’

The committee members – Principal Secretary, Transport and Roads and Buildings T.M. Krishna Babu, APSRTC Vice-Chairman and Managing Director N.V. Surendra Babu and a few others – will delve deep into the issues that can help them decide if the public transport body should be allowed to continue as an autonomous institution or should be within the government, functioning like any other department. “We will also consider the subsidies factor. Why is transport being subsidised to various sectors by the cash-strapped organisation. Efforts will have to be made to reduce the ‘subsidy burden’ on it,” said Mr. Reddy, explaining: “For instance, if the municipal employees are availing themselves of RTC passes, then the municipal corporation should subsidise it and not the RTC.” The committee will focus on effective measures to transform the RTC into a modern, viable corporation so it can run on its own. “It is imperative to bring down the operational costs, ” he said.