In a bid to overcome the financial crisis and provide better service to commuters, the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has decided not to operate schedules that do not fetch a minimum of Rs.10,000 daily.
Circulars have been issued to all depots and officials concerned in this regard. The schedules operated as part of social commitment, forest areas, and routes where other transport facility was not available would be exempted, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), KSRTC, M.G. Rajamanickam told.
Minimum collection
At present, the minimum ticket collection that has been fixed is Rs.7,000. The KSRTC, which has 6,000-odd buses, will use the stage carriers that are being withdrawn on other routes where there is demand.
The KSRTC needs Rs.7,800 to meet the salary and fuel bill daily of a bus. The fuel bill of a bus alone comes to Rs. 4,500 daily.
Mr. Rajamanickam, who recently took over as the CMD, said instructions had been issued to ensure that the 1,000 buses that were off the road, citing various reasons, were made operational.
During the week, 100 of these buses had started plying again and the ticket collection is going up touching Rs.5.2 crore on Wednesday.
As many as 300 buses were off the road due to the lack of crew on Wednesday.
Directives had been issued that stern action would be taken and 17 personnel had been terminated from servcice for unauthorised absence for long period of two to three years, he said.
The KSRTC CMD said his immediate priority is to generate revenue as the revenue-expenditure gap has touched Rs.100 crore.
The KSRTC has plans to make available the movement of buses real time using the GPS to commuters as being done by the railways. Initially, it will be introduced in long distance buses.
Paper tickets may go
Mr. Rajamanickam, who introduced the smart card for commuters travelling in private stage carriers in Kochi, had plans to replace paper tickets in KSRTC for regular commuters. Students travelling on concession tickets will also be provided with smart card.
Women commuters in the State capital can look forward for women-friendly KSRTC bus with a different hue and name in the coming days. The IOC informed that they would give 60-day credit for the KSRTC to pay the fuel bill and this was a breather for us, he added.
