RTC buses to go off roads today

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Hyderabad: Over 11,700 buses will go off the roads from Monday midnight with the APSRTC’s two main unions going on an indefinite strike. With lakhs of commuters travelling within Rayalaseema, Andhra and Telangana regions, particularly due to the marriage season, normal life is expected to come to a standstill with buses going off the roads. According to estimates, around 80 per cent of the inter-district travellers use bus services.
Meanwhile, the APSRTC management is gearing up to deal with the strike called by the two major unions — APSRTC Employees’ Union and the Telangana Mazdoor Union. A total of 133 depots across Rayalaseema and Andhra will be hit by the strike.
The authorities are hoping to run normal services in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts, despite the strike notice given by the Telangana Mazdoor Union. Of the 22,650 schedules over half will be crippled completely, officials said.
The strike called by the APSRTC Employees’ Union in association with APNGO is expected to cripple services almost completely. Meanwhile, the Telangana Mazdoor Union too has said that they will go ahead with their strike notice, which will cripple bus transport in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy zones.
Apart from putting commuters to trouble, the strike will hit the APSRTC badly as the corporation is already facing a loss of Rs 3,000 crore and a debt of Rs 4,000 crore. The APSRTC and has been taking loans to pay salaries. The RTC is likely to lose the revenue from the extra traffic during the Sravanam month.