Lakhs of commuters in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are in for hard times with over 1.2 lakh employees of Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) going on an indefinite strike from Tuesday midnight in support of their demand for pay hike.

Over 22,300 buses of the world's largest transporter will go off the roads. However, the full impact of the strike will be felt from Wednesday morning.

With several rounds of talks between representatives of employee unions and governments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana coming unstuck on Tuesday, the RTC employees decided to go ahead with their strike plan.

K Padmakar, general secretary of APSRTC Employees' Union (APSRTC- EU), told TOI that the indefinite strike commenced with long-distance services remaining at depots itself from Tuesday evening.

The employees had served a strike notice last month and had set May 5 deadline to meet their demands of salary hike with 43% fitment on par with state government employees.

In a bid to convince the employees to call off the strike, APSRTC managing director N Sambasiva Rao convened a meeting with representatives of employee unions and offered to convert the 27% interim relief (IR) to fitment. However, the employees rejected the offer.

Earlier, addressing a press conference, the RTC chief said if the employees' demand has to be met, the corporation would have to burden commuters by increasing passenger fares by 15-20 per cent.

"By increasing the fares by 15-20 per cent, we can generate an additional revenue of Rs 750 crore with which we can at best give 27% fitment. I requested the unions to understand the precarious financial position of APSRTC and avoid the strike, since it can endanger the very existence of the corporation. There are only two options to resolve the problem, either hike passenger fares or put up RTC properties for sale," Rao added.

In the last few weeks, the revenue of the corporation, which has the world's largest bus fleet, has been steadily increasing."In Telangana, the daily earnings have gone up from Rs 9 crore to Rs 10.5 crore, while in Andhra Pradesh it went up from Rs 11 crore to Rs 14 crore," he said.

Speaking about the bifurcation of APSRTC, which is also one of the demands of the unions, the MD said that from May 14 the corporation would have two units. "On May 13, the RTC board meeting will be held to settle the issues of distribution of assets and liabilities. The board's decision will be forwarded to the Sheela Bhide Committee," he added.

"Our demand for 43% fitment is not new as it has been pending for the last two years. The management deliberately did not bring the issue to the notice of the government. We want salaries on par with state government employees," Telangana Mazdoor Union (TMU) general secretary Ashwathama Reddy said.

"The talks have failed and the strike is on," he added.

As the talks failed, AP transport minister Sidda Raghava Rao stepped in and held a meeting with the APSRTC-EU leaders. He asked them to accept 27% fitment for now and wait for the cabinet sub-committee report.

Meanwhile, Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao held a meeting with Sambasiva Rao and APSRTC joint managing director Ramana Rao to take stock of the situation. He was also closeted with transport minister P Mahender Reddy and home minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy.

On the instructions of the CM, Mahender Reddy and Narasima Reddy held a meeting with employee union leaders. However, the talks failed with the employees refusing to budge.