While the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) has been running buses during the lockdown, but as a natural consequence of the restricted timings, it is running less than a third of its fleet, its occupancy has declined, and it is operating approximately an eighth of kilometres it usually runs.
According to sources, there have been around 800 buses in operation in the Greater Hyderabad Zone (GHZ) of the TSRTC since the lockdown came into effect. On any usual day, the number of buses pressed into service would be between 2,800 to 3,000 per day.
With fewer buses plying roads, the number of kilometres the transport juggernaut has operated too has gone down drastically.
Sample this: before the night curfew was announced, the TSRTC operated around 8 lakh kilometres in GHZ. The number plummeted once the lockdown came into effect. The number of kilometres operated till a day before the lockdown was announced — on May 11 — was approximately 4 lakh kilomteres. But since the lockdown came into effect, the kilometres operated have been between 65,000 to 1.3 lakh.
On May 12, the TSRTC operated around 1.3 lakh kilometres per day, a day later the number dropped to around 65,000 kilometres in the GHZ. On the next day, the number then rose to a little over 75,000 kilometres.
The earning per kilometre too has dropped from around ₹ 35 to ₹ 30.
