Free bus ride for women from today poses multiple challenges to APSRTC

The Hindu

2 days ago

The Andhra Pradesh government is all set to launch 'Stree Shakti', the free bus travel scheme for women that aims to enhance mobility and reduce transportation costs for lakhs of beneficiaries across the State, on Friday (August 15).
The initiative, however, faces a bumpy road ahead in view of the financial strain it would put on the cash-strapped AP State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC), the dire need for additional buses to meet an expected surge in ridership and the challenge of managing overcrowding during peak hours. Under this scheme, girls, women and transgenders will be allowed free travel in five categories of buses — Palle Velugu, Ultra Palle Velugu, City Ordinary, Metro Express and Express Services.
The Public Transport Department which managed to improve its financial health over the years by devising innovative ways to shore up the revenues, is likely to face a heavy financial burden owing to the free bus travel scheme.
The accumulated revenue losses of the APSRTC, which were ₹6,445 crore in 2019, came down to ₹3,275 crore in 2023 and to less than ₹2,000 crore now. 'Bank loans have been almost cleared with only an outstanding amount of ₹1,500 crore remaining to be paid,' says an official.
Change in revenue sharing
The scheme will also alter the revenue-sharing model. The APSRTC management has been paying 25% of its monthly revenue to the government as part of the revenue-sharing agreement reached at the time of the merger of its 51,488 employees with the government. The RTC employees were taken into the fold of the newly created Public Transport Department on January 1, 2020, and they receive their salaries directly from the government, a move that incurred an additional monthly expenditure of ₹300 crore to the exchequer. 'Now this practice will change as the government will fund the fee bus travel scheme,' the official adds.
Issues like fund crunch, shortage of staff and infrastructure have prevented the State bus network from growing fast enough to cater to the ever-increasing volume of passengers, a fact that came in handy for private bus companies to deploy their services illegally even in routes earmarked for operation of the State buses.
The new scheme would put an additional monthly burden of ₹166 crore on the State exchequer while annually, it would be around ₹2,000 crore. The government will have to shoulder the responsibility of making timely and adequate budgetary support for successfully running the scheme, say analysts.
Handling the passenger surge which could overwhelm buses during peak hours is the biggest non-financial challenge the officials of the corporation foresee. In the wake of constraints in immediately increasing the fleet size, the officials feel that crowd-control would be a daunting task.
The officials estimate that the current average occupancy ratio of 68% in the State-run buses, which already exceeds 100% during peak hours in the mornings and evenings, could hit 150% occupancy during peak hours after the launch of the scheme. This is bound to result in overcrowding and passenger discomfort, besides safety issues.
Staff seeks more buses
'For the scheme to be successful, there is a pressing need to increase the number of buses by adding at least 3,000 additional vehicles to the fleet and recruiting 10,000 more employees. We have been asking this ever since the government announced the scheme,' says P. Damodara Rao, State president of the Andhra Pradesh Public Transport Department (earlier APSRTC) Employees' Union.
Concerned that the anticipated overcrowding could strain existing infrastructure and equipment such as Ticket Issuing Machines (TIMS), the union leaders have been insisting that the authorities upgrade the TIM software to ensure efficient operations under the new scheme and to ensure operation of the buses in proportion to the passenger load during peak hours in high-density routes.
They also say that it will not be possible to carry cargo parcels and postal bags in buses during peak hours, and the authorities should make alternative arrangements.
Pitted against several odds, the State Transport Corporation operates a fleet of 11,500 buses, of which 2.500 are hired vehicles. The buses operate from 129 depots across the State with a daily volume of 40 lakh km, carrying 40 lakh passengers every day. These vehicles connect 14,123 villages on 1,423 routes in the State.
It remains to be seen how the Stree Shakti scheme will shape the functioning of APSRTC in the days ahead.