Bowing to TU pressure, APSRTC puts off restructuring for now

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Hyderabad: Yielding to the demands of the agitating trade unions, the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) has decided to go easy on the proposed restructuring programme for now. Though, it had already closed 13 depots and three more are on the verge of closure, the management has decided to apply the brakes. "The restructuring proposal was temporarily stopped," APSRTC managing director Dinesh Reddy said. The corporation has appointed a six-member committee with trade union leaders and APSRTC officials to review the entire plan besides visiting the loss-making depots and submit its recommendations to the management.

The depot visits will be for exploring the opportunities to enhance their profitability. Nageshwar Rao, president, National Mazdoor Union (NMU) and also a member in the six-member committee said the committee was expected to submit its report in the next two to three months. He said the management had agreed to provide 'acceptable rehabilitation' to those temporary and contract employees who may be losing jobs due to the restructuring.

Interestingly, the unions have successfully stalled the reform process for the third time since the Implementation Secretariat (IS) had put APSRTC under the reform agenda. Though IS had prepared the plan to split the corporations into four independent companies, on the lines of the electricity board unbundling, the then chief minister Chandrababu Naidu rejected the idea since the state was in the verge of general elections.

Similarly, even Rajasekhara Reddy had to issue 'stop orders' in 2005 and now, APSRTC, a monolithic organisation, has a fleet strength of about 17,500 buses and employs nearly 1,33,000 people. This is the largest corporation in the field of transport services in the country. Today, the corporation has 211 bus depots and operates in 23 regions, six zones besides six zonal workshops, one bus body building workshop and a printing press.