Ninety years ago, for the first time in history, a red Albion bus rumbled from Machli Kamaan, the Qutb Shahi arch on the north of Charminar, towards Secunderabad. That was June 15, 1932. The bus belonged to the Asaf Jahi dynasty’s Motor Bus Service, which later became the Road Transport Department (RTD).
For nine decades, RTD, in its different manifestations, weathered several storms. It survived the global implications of a devastating world war. It witnessed the annexation of the princely State of Hyderabad and its merger with the world’s largest democracy. It acquired a new identity as Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation. Nearly 58 years later, in 2016, after the birth of India’s newest State, it became Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC).
In Mir Osman Ali Khan’s Hyderabad, Muhammad Jafar Hussain Ansari, a seghaidaar in Nizam’s government, wrote that on June 15, the very same day, buses left from Machli Kamaan. They trudged the route picking up passengers all the way to Kachiguda and Nalgonda. A fortnight later, buses made their way to different destinations from Kazipet.
