The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TGSRTC) has announced plans to operate 7,000 special buses for Dasara travel, with services from Hyderabad and districts scheduled around the festival rush. However, the zone-wise figures published in the report do not reconcile with the stated total, leaving the final deployment plan unclear.
According to the report, passenger demand is expected to be particularly high on October 9, 10, 16 and 17. TGSRTC has also planned additional arrangements for return journeys on October 25 and 26, when large numbers of passengers are expected to travel back after the festival.
The corporation is operating special services from high-demand locations in Hyderabad, including the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station, Jubilee Bus Station, Uppal’s Nalla Cheruvu, Aramgarh, LB Nagar Cross Roads, KPHB, Bowenpally and Gachibowli. The stated objective is to reduce inconvenience for passengers travelling to their hometowns and to maintain services on congested routes.
The report attributes the plan to TGSRTC management, which said buses would be made available on the main travel dates. It also said that empty buses would be brought back quickly on return routes even if passenger traffic on those services was low, in order to prevent shortages on congested corridors.
The published zone-wise allocation includes 3,533 buses from the Karimnagar zone, 431 from Adilabad, 719 from Nizamabad, 1,175 from Karimnagar, 530 from Warangal, 678 from Khammam and 2,155 from Hyderabad. It separately lists 645 buses from Mahabubnagar, 255 from Medak, 815 from Nalgonda, 440 from Rangareddy and 1,312 special services from the Greater Hyderabad zone.
These figures, as reproduced in the report, add up to substantially more than the announced total of 7,000 buses. The report does not explain whether some entries refer to trips, services, operational schedules or overlapping administrative areas. TGSRTC’s final zone-wise deployment and the meaning of the figures therefore require clarification.
The corporation has said that fares for special buses will be revised to as much as 1.5 times the regular fare. The revised fares are reported to apply only to special buses operating within Telangana and to other states on October 9, 10, 16 and 17, as well as on October 25 and 26. Regular fares will continue on normal buses.
Under the state government’s Mahalaxmi scheme, free bus travel for women will continue on Palle Velugu, Express, City Ordinary, Metro Express Regular and special buses operating for Dasara, according to the report.
Passengers seeking information about special services have been advised to contact the TGSRTC call centre on 040-69440000 or 040-23450033. Confirmation of the corrected total and the final route-wise schedule is required before the deployment figures can be treated as settled.
