Pushpak services see a ‘lean’ phase

While Pushpak, the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation’s environment-friendly airport bus service, has remained a lifeline for thousands of daily commuters, a dip in passenger numbers of late have prompted the State-run transporter to quietly revise its ticket fares upwards. While the move upset some regular users, who took to social media to express their displease, recent data suggests that daily average ridership levels have seen a slump.

Data over a 45-day period beginning June 1 this year indicates that while the services witnessed steady ridership in June, the numbers saw a decline in July.

Since January this year, the occupancy ratio fell from 74% in January this year to 67% in July. To illustrate, the average daily passengers in January were over 5,100. In July, this number dipped to around 4,100. The TGSRTC pegs this to what they said is a general dip in passenger movement at the airport.

Parallelly, the passenger traffic at the RGIA shows that the number of travellers handled by the airport management in June was higher with the single highest passenger traffic recorded on June 1. Passenger data for July was unavailable.

Explaining the rationale behind the Pushpak fare hike, a TGSRTC official said “The RTC did not increase ticket prices for more than 10 years. We saw a lot of changes in this decade, including costs related to crew utilisation and inflation. Over this period, the price remained constant, and after internal discussions with the management, the ticket price was increased accordingly.”

Meanwhile, V. C. Sajjanar, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of TGSRTC, clarified that the months of June and July constitute a phase in which the State road transport undertaking deals with relatively fewer passengers. He said that the trend was not specific to Pushpak services.

“In these couple of months, we see that the holiday season comes to an end. With schools and colleges reopening, there is lower passenger activity as people travel less often, especially with their families. This is not just applicable to services to the airport, but to other services as well. It is a lean period for us,” he clarified.

Mr Sajjanar also told The Hindu that a recent meeting with airport officials was held in which passenger traffic at the RGIA was discussed, along with Pushpak services.