KSRTC in crisis: 1700 services to be scrapped
Posted on: 22 Jan 2013
Thiruvananthapuram: KSRTC has requested the state government to allow them to cancel services which are not profitable. The corporation will seek permission to scrap 1700 services till the diesel subsidy is retained and those buses which are not collecting Rs 10,000 a day. With the central government giving permission to stop diesel subsidy to large scale consumers, KSRTC is in a huge crisis. Consumer pay Rs 48.72 for a litre of diesel while KSRTC will have to shell out Rs 60.20 a litre. At present, the corporation is incurring a loss of Rs 65 crore and from next month onwards it will touch Rs 80 crore.
KSRTC will stop services which are earning less than Rs 10,000 a day and as many as 1700 buses need to be scrapped, leading to huge transport crisis in the state.
Chief minister Oommen Chandy has sent a letter to the Centre seeking to retain the subsidy to KSRTC. Till a decision on this is arrived, the corporation will stop such services. The corporation also wanted the government to give Rs 200 crore for giving pension and for day-to-day activities.
KSRTC has begun to scrap services from Sunday onwards. Of the 5870 schedules, only 4470 held services. In first zone which include Thiruvananthapuram, as many as 500 services were scrapped. With scraping of services, there is considerable decline in revenue of corporation.
Transport minister Aryadan Muhammad said if the diesel subsidy were not retained, the department would be forced to cancel more KSRTC services. Due to hike in diesel prices, KSRTC is running on a loss of Rs 50 lakh a day. Presently over 100 buses are under repair. If the crisis continues, more services would be scrapped. Aryadan was speaking to media persons here on Sunday.
The central government should give subsidy to public transport system, including KSRTC, otherwise it will have grave impact. They can't survive after giving extra Rs 11.43 for a litre. Each month extra burden of Rs 15 crore is incurred. If there are legal implications on giving subsidy to organizations like KSRTC, the central government must be ready to give the loss incurred as subsidy. He also said there won't be any bus charge hike.
