The Minister informed that a separate GO was also issued for appointing Special Officers each for East and West Godavari districts in the State to expedite the works. Speaking to the media persons at R&B Guest House here on Saturday, the Minister said that as per these orders, the Engineer in Chief would get powers for sanctioning of works instead of doing the same at the government. He said that the authorities would call short tenders in the place of regular tenders to save time and also to take up works immediately.

Pithani further said that necessary orders were issued by the government for release of rice, kerosene and financial assistance for clothes and utensils for those whose houses were marooned due to heavy rains. Special provision was also made for construction of fully damaged houses at the rate of Rs 70,000 per house on fully subsidized basis. With regard to road safety to avoid accidents, he said that a special meeting would be called shortly with the R&B Department officials, National Highways authorities and police officials to discuss the measures of vehicles movement, roads conditions and on road safety shortly. People’s representatives and service organizations involved in road safety would also be invited for the meeting, he added.

The Minister further said that a special meeting would be held at Rajahmundry with experts on safety of road-cum-railway bridge and on widening of roads on November 12. In this connection, Rajahmundry city MLA Rowthu Surya Prakasa Rao requested the minister for construction of a flyover near Morampudi to avoid accidents and to control traffic in Rajahmundry town and also for repairs of R&B road from Rajahmundry to Phurushothapatanm via Seethanagaram. INN

This was disclosed by AK Khan, Managing Director and vice-chairman APSRTC, while speaking to the media at Rajahmundry on Tuesday. He said that solar panels were being installed in 105 depots out of 212 depots in the state and this process would be completed by the end of coming august. He said that this would enable the depots to have assured power supply to their regular needs and one such wind power unit at Ananthapur was producing 10 MWs.

Speaking on the need of increasing OR (Occupancy Ratio) in RTC buses , Khan said that efforts were being made to increase the OR from the present level of 71-74 percent to 77-78 percent by providing better amenities and punctuality and one percent increase of OR would fetch Rs 60 crore income to the RTC.

With regard to enforcement to control the illegal operations ,which are badly affecting the RTC he said that 31 Assistant motor vehicle inspectors were taken from transport department on deputation .He further said that the recent hike of diesel prices by the Central Government to the bulk purchases ,would cost Rs 715 crore per year to the RTC, which is Rs 2 crore per day To meet this heavy expenditure, certain measures were discussed in the recent EDs meeting at state level and discretion was given to Executive Directors in the zonal level ,which includes purchasing of diesel at retailers, reduction of unproductive mileage, minimization of not required services etc.,

While speaking on the safety of passengers, the RTC MD said that recently RTC has bagged a safety award in the nation by proving accident ration of 0.09 per 1lakh kilometers. The GPS system in the RTC would help for passenger information services and also vehicle tracking system also, he added. INN