The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : STUs slowly rolling out of the red

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 25, 2007
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

STUs slowly rolling out of the red

Anil Kumar Sastry and Nagesh Prabhu

Lower productivity, increased accidents and breakdown of buses remain bugbears

Anil Kumar Sastry

and Nagesh Prabhu

BANGALORE: Three of the four State transport undertakings (STUs) — the BMTC, the KSRTC and the NWKRTC — have together posted a profit of Rs. 268 crore during 2006-07 while the NEKRTC has shown signs of recovery by reducing its losses from Rs. 22 crore in 2005-06 to Rs. 11 crore in 2006-07.

The North-West Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC), which posted a loss of Rs. 30 crore during the previous year, has come out of the red by posting a profit of Rs. 12 crore. While the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has made a profit of Rs. 25 crore, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has posted a profit of Rs. 231 crore, according to provisional performance results of the four STUs.

Fewer cancellations

Transport Minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy told The Hindu that fewer cancellations of trips, reduced accidents, lower bus-to-staff ratio and improved vehicle utilisation had helped the corporations perform better. Also, induction of more new buses (3,348 during 2006-07 compared to 2,561 the previous year) helped the corporations to further build their image, he said.

However, except the BMTC, the other three corporations have shown operational losses: KSRTC, Rs. 54 crore; NWKRTC, Rs. 94 crore; and NEKRTC, Rs. 44 crore. Only the BMTC has shown an operational surplus of Rs. 77 crore. The KSRTC and the NWKRTC were able to set off operational losses and show a profit because of `other revenue' of Rs. 79 crore and Rs. 106 crore generated from rent and advertisement respectively.

More new buses

With the financial position of the corporations improving, they were able to induct 3,348 new buses. This helped the STUs double the introduction of new routes from 706 during the previous year to 1,588 during 2006-07. The corporations have together scrapped 1,345 buses and plan to scrap 2,400 more during 2007-08.

However, decreased productivity per bus, increased number of accidents and breakdowns have affected the performance of these corporations. The number of breakdowns rose from 16,806 to 18,126 and the number of accidents from 2,458 to 2,598 during the relevant period.

The State's transport undertakings have the lowest bus-to-staff ratio in the country, which has also helped them improve performance. While the STUs in Karnataka have 4.9 staff per schedule, the figures for some of the other States are as follows: Rajasthan, 5.09; Uttar Pradesh, 5.16; Andhra Pradesh, 6.05; Tamil Nadu, 6.35; Maharashtra, 7.04; Gujarat, 7.24; and Kerala, 9.11.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka

News Update

Stories in this Section