The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) is planning to make its coffers ring by collecting 50 per cent additional charges over the normal from pilgrims/passengers travelling in the special buses to be run as part of Godavari Pushkaralu from July 14 to 25.

The decision to collect 50 per cent additional charges was announced by Joint Managing Director of TSRTC G.V. Ramana Rao here on Tuesday.

Talking to newspersons in the Secretariat, Mr. Rao stated that they have plans to operate 2,270 buses to transport pilgrims visiting the places of Godavari Pushkaralu. They are expecting to transport about 25 lakh pilgrims this time as against 14.05 lakh transported during the last Pushkaralu in 2003.

He explained that their plans are based on increased number of pushakar ghats from 20 in 2003 to 106 now with major ghats located at Basar in Adilabad, Dharmapuri and Kaleshwaram in Karimnagar, and Bhadrachalam in Khammam district.

Mr. Rao stated that special buses would be operated in Adilabad (310), Nizamabad (300), Karimnagar (415), Warangal (355), Khammam (360) and Hyderabad (530) regions.

A maximum of 650 buses would be operated on Hyderabad-Basar route followed by 300 on Karimnagar/Warangal-Kaleshwaram, Karimnagar/Jagitial/

Metpally-

Dharmapuri - 260, Hyderabad-Bhadrachalam and Bhadrachalam-Munugur crossroads - 100 each, and Nizamabad-Kandakurthy – 80. The TSRTC had spent Rs. 1.27 crore for establishing 23 temporary bus stations along with basic amenities including cloakroom facility at pushkara ghats, Mr. Ramana Rao stated.

The additional charges are based on the increased number of pushkar ghats from 20 in 2003 to 106 now