Too big for bus: Hyderabad’s 6’6″ conductor finds job he can stand up in

Due to his height of 198 cm, the conductor from Mehdipatnam Depot in Hyderabad had been struggling with routine bus operations.

Hyderabad: For most conductors, the toughest part of the job is dealing with rowdy passengers or chasing down exact change. For Ameen Ahmed Ansari of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation’s (TGSRTC) Mehdipatnam depot, the enemy has always been the ceiling.

Ansari, who stands at a perfectly inconvenient 198 cm, roughly six-and-a-half feet, has spent years bending, ducking and contorting himself through the narrow, low-slung interiors of Hyderabad’s city buses. It was a daily occupational obstacle that no amount of training had prepared him for.

TGSRTC recognised the mismatch. A year ago, the corporation handed Ansari an Out of Designation (OD) posting, which is essentially a bureaucratic timeout, hoping the problem would somehow sort itself out over 12 months. It did not. 

Ansari returned to regular conductor duties, still a very tall man.

According to social media news handle TeluguScribe, sources close to the conductor say the ducking and bending had begun to take a visible toll, with Ansari experiencing neck and back pain. 

Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s intervention reportedly nudged the corporation to find a more permanent solution. Ansari is now being deployed at either a bus pass section or at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) on OD duty, “based on requirement, immediately.”

RGIA’s terminal ceilings are several storeys high. For the first time in his career, Ansari will go to work without crouching.