GULBARGA: Minister for Transport N. Cheluvarayaswamy has said a proposal for providing a grant of Rs. 100 crore each to the North Eastern Karnataka Transport Corporation (NEKRTC) headquartered in Gulbarga and North Western Karnataka Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) headquartered in Hubli is awaiting clearance from the Finance Department.

Profit

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Mr. Cheluvarayaswamy said the Government had decided to provide this grant to improve infrastructure and introduce new fleet in the two corporations, which were not doing as well as the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) and the Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC).

He said Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy had cleared the proposal after he had a discussion with him on the need to provide special grants to these two corporations to enable them to make profits.

Referring to the performance of the NEKRTC, the Minister said that the corporation was neither making any profit nor loss and the Government wanted the corporations to become self-sufficient and make profits.

Better facilities

With the intention to improve facilities in the NEKRTC and introduce buses on new routes, the Government had decided to gift 100 buses used by the BMTC to the NEKRTC and sanction purchase of 650 new buses this year.

He said this was in addition to 450 new buses sanctioned last year to NEKRTC for which tenders had been called for for 200 buses.

On private buses, which were eating into the revenue of the NEKRTC and other corporations, Mr. Cheluvarayaswamy said the NEKRTC authorities had been directed to step up their activities to meet the challenge posed by private operators by improving their services and make it more competitive.

The NWKRTC was successful in combating private operators and the NEKRTC should draw the inspirations from this, he added.

The Government had sanctioned Rs. 25 lakh for the construction of a new bus stand in Super Market area and it would be taken up shortly.

On the inadequacy of bus services in the Gulbarga city, the Minister said 41 new buses would be introduced.

Mr. Cheluvarayaswamy said the Government had issued a notification for the recruitment of 11,000 drivers and conductors in the State and the recruitment process would begin shortly.

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