Officials from the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) are mulling to seek help of APSRTC for transportation of sanitation staff to work, due to lockdown orders.

At present, there are nearly 7,500 staff working with the sanitation department in the GVMC.

More 1,000 were hired due to more sanitation work. It was learnt that the sanitation staff have been facing problems to attend duty due to lockdown.

Several employees are working at various red zones like Akkayyapalem, Gajuwaka, Poorna Market, ITI Junction and Thatichetlapalem.

Though sanitation staff are allowed despite Section 144 imposed as part of lockdown orders, many workers complained that they are unable to attend duties due to lack of public transport.

“We are planning to ask RTC officials to provide buses from some routes to pick up and drop sanitation staff. The number of buses and routes is yet to be decided,” said Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH), GVMC, K.S.L.G Sastry.

It was learnt that the RTC officials are also positive towards the proposal.

Rythu bazaars

At present, the APSRTC Visakhapatnam region is running six buses in various routes to ferry farmers from various areas to 13 rythu bazaars in the city.