The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) has received a crushing blow with oil marketing companies hiking fuel prices for bulk buyers, even as retail prices remain the same. This development could mean severe implications, including massive losses, for the transport corporation.
TSRTC managing director V.C. Sajjanar confirmed the development to The Hindu on Sunday. According to Mr. Sajjanar, the increase in diesel price per litre is approximately ₹7.
“This change is across the country for those who procure diesel in bulk. The increase in price is expected to affect the corporation and cause a loss between ₹35 lakh and ₹40 lakh per day,” he said.
TSRTC sources said that the transport juggernaut’s buses consume approximately 5.5 lakh litres of high-speed diesel (HSD) per day. However, over the last two years, given the pandemic, and the announcement of lockdowns, buses did not run like before. This has led to relatively lower consumption of fuel. Various fuel efficiency measures have been put in place, including incentivising depots for increasing the fuel efficiency of buses. After manpower, HSD is the highest cost input for the corporation.
Fuel efficiency
According to official documents, the approximate fuel efficiency of TSRTC buses has been between 5.20 and 5.40 km per litre of diesel. RTC has stepped up its efforts to improve this. Now, with the ₹7 per litre hike, TSRTC sources said that fuel efficiency in terms of kilometre to litre will have to be re-evaluated.
Sources said that this will lead to an emphasis on increasing the occupancy ratio (OR), and could mean focused attempts to increase fuel efficiency of buses.
As was reported in these columns, RTC has seen lower OR after the lockdown.
Sources said that with the increase in HSD prices, another option to offset losses was an increase in ticket fares. It was in December last year that Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar, along with TSRTC officials, including Mr. Sajjanar, and TSRTC chairman Bajireddy Goverdhan, had proposed a hike of 25 paise to 30 paise per km.
“The fare hike file is with the Chief Minister. We are actively pursuing this,” the source said.
