TOURISM BODY HIT BY PVT BUSES

IN

Passengers going to destinations such as Shirdi, Tirupati, Srisailam etc. consider booking Telangana tourism operated buses apart from dozens of different private operators who run services on the same routes.

However, the tourism department’s buses are at a disadvantage in front of private travels as they operate latest bus models with new features.

The Tourism Department has 42 buses, including 14 air-conditioned ones. Of these 14 are Volvo and Benz model buses. Nearly a dozen buses badly need service and these are lying idle in a shed near Lower Tank Bund here.

Since some time, private operators switched to multi-axle buses that offer higher seating capacity, comfortable travel and affecting the passengers less on bumpy roads.

Tour operators pressed these latest models into service on high demand routes such as Shirdi and Tirupati and this is where the Tourism Department has been losing.

“Telangana Tourism Dept does not have multi-axle buses. Also, the preferrable time to replace such luxury buses is after covering 5 lakh kilometers.

“However, most of the Telangana tourism buses have covered 10 lakh km with some going up to even 12 lakh km,” rued an employee, under conditions of anonymity.

When Anjaneya Reddy was the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) chairman in the combined state (2004-05), tourism buses were replaced with new ones after the reading crossed 5 lakh km. Reddy got credits for revamping the APTDC.

His efforts changed its fortune. From a loss-making body, it soon became a profit-attractor. The image of APTDC too changed for good.

Mr Reddy focused on building infrastructure and exploring heritage tourism potential and tourism in rural areas.