TGSRTC collects ₹1 safety cess but offers no passenger insurance
HYDERABAD: The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TGSRTC) continues to collect ₹1 per passenger under the “safety cess”, but travellers receive no insurance protection in case of accidents.
No accident insurance for RTC passengers
If a bus accident occurs, victims’ families often struggle to get compensation. In fatal accidents, families receive only nominal payments around ₹2 – 5 lakh depending on the severity of the incident. However, this amount comes from RTC’s internal funds, not from any passenger insurance scheme.
Railways offer assured insurance
By contrast, Indian Railways provides a mandatory ₹3 lakh insurance cover for every ticket holder, which increases to ₹8 lakh in fatal cases, in addition to government ex gratia. RTC passengers, however, have no such assurance.
Safety cess collected daily
Despite this gap, TGSRTC collects ₹1 per passenger as “safety cess” since March 2022, based on a circular issued by then Managing Director V C Sajjanar. The levy is not shown separately on tickets. With lakhs of passengers travelling daily, the corporation collects about ₹21.9 crore annually through this cess.
Officials claim the money is used to pay accident compensation. In 2022 alone, RTC paid ₹21.21 crore to families of 301 accident victims and injured passengers. The increasing number of accidents from 0.6 per lakh km earlier to 0.7 per lakh km now has made payouts a financial burden, prompting the cess collection.
Families wait years for compensation
In major accidents such as the Kondagattu bus tragedy, where 65 passengers died, compensation was announced ₹5 lakh for the deceased and ₹2.5 lakh for the injured but victims’ families reportedly waited years to receive it. In smaller incidents, compensation remains minimal, leaving bereaved families without meaningful financial support.
