Yet another round of talks between officials of the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation and their Telangana counterparts in Hyderabad Bus Bhavan on Wednesday remained inconclusive.
Inter-State bus operations between the two States had stopped in the last seven months on account of the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic situation. The APSRTC is eager to resume operations to the neighbouring State, especially in view of the Dasara festivities, a time when there is heavy traffic of people travelling between the two States.
“In the name of route parity, they want too many advantages, compromising the interests of the APSRTC,” said a top official who was part of the talks.
APSRTC buses operate in 1.4 lakh km on the Hyderabad-Vijayawada-Garikapadu route while TSRTC operates in 33,000 km. “They now want parity for 67,000 km on the Vijayawada-Hyderabad route without they having to touch interior areas of Andhra Pradesh,” said the official. He said the Telangana RTC wanted sector-wise benefit. “In the name of parity, they are asking for something else,” he said.
Though a solution to the deadlock does not seem easy to come by, the APSRTC officials want to operate buses to Telangana on a temporary basis till March 2021, without waiting for a permanent settlement on the inter-State bus operations between the two States.
“We will send our proposals to the TSRTC in a couple of days with a hope that both sides will sort out the differences at the earliest,” said the official.