Telangana RTC to overhaul bus schedules from Sept 5

Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TGSRTC) will launch a statewide exercise called SMART (Schedule Management According to Ridership Trends) from September 5, redesigning bus schedules based on actual passenger demand instead of fixed timings. The exercise, which is currently undergoing a depot-wise review, aims to address the mismatch between old schedules and changing travel patterns caused by urban expansion, industrial growth and the Mahalakshmi free bus travel scheme that has sharply increased women ridership.

Under SMART, depots are assessing passenger movement on individual routes and time slots. Services with low demand could be reduced, shifted or retimed, while buses could be added to high-demand routes. The corporation also plans to keep buses overnight at destinations where return trips have few passengers, saving fuel and improving early morning service availability. TGSRTC currently operates 6,490 schedules outside Greater Hyderabad, of which 1,542 are night-out schedules but only about 500 buses are kept overnight in villages.