Donita Jose By Express News Service HYDERABAD: The first step of the announced trifurcation materialised on Wednesday, as the TSRTC uploaded tenders for hiring private buses on its website. By inviting tenders for 1,035 buses, the RTC has for the first time invited extensive tenders for city commute as well. This was earlier handled by RTC alone, barring a few routes. Of the 1,035 buses, over 764 additional hired buses will ply just within the city limits. The tender will start from October 21 and invites private persons to rent out their buses to the RTC. In this formulation, the bus, the driver and the fuel expenses will be covered by the bus operators while the RTC would pay them for their services based on the kilometers covered. In Hyderabad, they will be paid up to Rs 9.6 while in suburban and village areas will be paid Rs 6. This will also increase the overall fleet of privately hired buses to 3,000, in accordance with the CM’s announcement last week that the TSRTC will own 50 per cent of the fleet, 30 per cent will be hired from private operators, and 20 per cent will be run by private owners. Senior RTC officials noted that the move will help RTC save nearly Rs 8 per kilometre. “The city has been given more privately hired buses as it is harder to find RTC drivers for the pay scale the corporation offers,” noted senior officials. RTC also has to pay higher HRA to city drivers by bearing additional costs for them. Further, there are talks that the vehicle utilisation targets for these private hire buses — that is, how many kilometers a bus should run in one day — is also pegged lower at 200 km. This, as the RTC plans to cut on trip frequency and save money as the vehicles tend to be stuck longer in traffic, in the city.

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