The TSRTC authorities have announced plans to establish an RTC depot in Peddapalli, a rapidly developing industrial district. The lack of better transport accommodation has become a major issue in the area, with people more dependent on private vehicles than RTC buses. The establishment of a bus depot in the district headquarters is inevitable, according to Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar, who responded to a question by MLA Manohar Reddy in Assembly recently.
Currently, all mandal centres and villages are well connected by road to Peddapalli district headquarters, but there is a situation where two buses have to be changed by people to reach many villages in the district. There is no other alternative except setting up a depot to centralise transport services at Peddapalli, which has become a district from a divisional centre.
All mandal headquarters are within a minimum of 15 kilometers and a maximum of 30 kilometers from the district headquarters, while there is no direct bus facility to the four mandal centers in the district. Buses belonging to Godavarikhani, Manthani, Karimnagar, Jagtial and Huzurabad depots are plying between various mandal centres to the district centre.
In the past, efforts were made to set up a bus depot in Peddapalli, but the place identified for the purpose was in dispute. The establishment of the depot was disrupted when some people claimed that the valuable land was theirs by using errors in the revenue records. The bus depot was then shifted to Godavarikhani as the SCCL gave free space to set up the depot. In 2010, efforts were made once again to set up a depot, but the chosen location was too far away from the bus stand.
The Minister’s willingness to set up a depot at Peddpalli and RTC MD Sajjanar’s efforts to streamline RTC brings joy to the residents of the district. However, it is important to ensure that the choice of place for setting up the depot is not a problem. There is a need for public representatives and political leaders to intervene and select one of the vacant lands in the MPDO office near the current bus stand where there is five acres government land was seized by the revenue officials from the ITI ground. The land of the Endowments Department on Station Road and the DCMS warehouse opposite the bus stand are also suitable for setting up RTC depot. The chances of setting up a depot will be improved by moving the petrol station which is being built at the bus stand site to another place.
