The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) generated a good revenue from the special buses plied during the Dasara festival.
“As many as 1.40 lakh additional passengers utilised the special services during the festival. The APSRTC realised a revenue of ₹17.05 crore on October 18 only, a record given the COVID-19 scenario,” said APSRTC Managing Director Ch. Dwaraka Tirumala Rao, adding that people preferred to travel by RTC buses during the festival.
In a statement on Tuesday, Mr. Tirumala Rao thanked people of Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring States such as Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka for extending their patronage to the APSRTC services during the festival period. On October 17, the APSRTC ran 303 special services from the State to Hyderabad, 152 buses from Vijayawada, 122 from Visakhapatnam, 95 from Bengaluru, 89 from Rajamahendravaram, 41 from Tirupati, 12 from Chennai and 93 buses from other places, in strict adherence to the COVID-19 protocols at the bus stations and inside the buses.
Fifty officers and 250 supervisors were deployed at major bus stations and important traffic pick-up points such as Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Vijayawada to guide the passengers for a hassle-free boarding into the buses.