52.78 lakh people travel in TSRTC Sankranti special buses
Hyderabad: On the occasion of the Sankranti festival, around 52.78 lakh people were safely transported to their destinations in 1,861 TSRTC Sankranti special buses on a single day on Saturday, creating a new record in the State.
TSRTC managing director VC Sajjanar took to X to share the positive response received for the buses arranged for the festival. According to Sajjanar, as scores of people travel to their native villages during Sankranti, TSRTC initially planned to run special buses to the tune of 4,484. A total of 4,400 special buses were operated in three days on January 11 to 13, making the total number of buses operated until Saturday 6,261. Another 652 buses were added to cater to the rush on Sunday.
Of the special buses, 1,127 were Hyderabad city buses diverted to Karimnagar, Warangal, Vijayawada, Khammam, and other routes with high passenger traffic.
For the first time, a command-and-control centre was set up in the TSRTC Bus Bhavan to monitor these special buses. More than half of the commuters who availed of these buses were women, he informed, adding that they all travelled to their hometowns free of charge under the Mahalakshmi scheme.
Thanking the TSRTC staff, Sajjanar said that advance planning and coordinated work are what helped them transport passengers without any incidents.
Moreover, the city commuters who used to travel in State-run buses faced difficulties and were forced to shell out money to travel in auto-rickshaws, as there was less bus frequency on city roads. The city buses were taken as festival special buses and diverted to other districts.
Prashant Kumar, a resident of Alwal, said that since Saturday, he has been facing difficulty with transportation. “After waiting for around 45 minutes for the bus service 229 (Medchal-Secunderabad), I was forced to take a shared auto-rickshaw to reach my destination. Ramesh, another commuter, said that he had to wait for an hour to catch the bus service 47L (Secunderabad-Film Nagar).