The Hyderabad Metro might have been proven helpful to a lot of Hyderabadis but the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) buses are seeing a drop in occupancy ever since the Hyderabad metro stretch between LB Nagar and Ameerpet was opened. The increased demand for the metros is due to numerous reasons ranging from speed and safety to the better help personnel and lack of pollution.

When the Ameerpet-LB Nagar stretch opened to the public on 24 September, it recorded a footfall of 69,000. Corridor-1 of the metro from LB Nagar to Miyapur saw 1,14,000 passengers in a single day.

The day following the opening of the LB Nagar-Ameerpet stretch, the LB Nagar metro station recorded a footfall of 10,400, overtaking Miyapur (8,100) and KPHB (8,400) said NVS Reddy, director, HMRL when speaking to media, reports The News Minute.

However, post the inauguration of the stretch between LB Nagar and Ameerpet on September 24, the Earning per Kilometer (EPK) of TSRTC along the said route fell from Rs 54 per kilometre down to Rs 42-45 per kilometre along the route for all services.

To solve the problem, the TSRTC is reconsidering routes along the metro stretch and may shift their services to high-density corridors that are not served by the metro.

The TSRTC plans to change the routes they ply. The occupancy ratio and the earning for other services of TSRTC such as deluxe and metro buses have also reduced, said C Vinod Kumar, TSRTC Executive Director, Greater Hyderabad. The worst hit has been the AC buses which were used by people working in the IT sector in the city who started preferring the Metro for cost and speed efficiency.