The Hindu : Kerala News : Bad roads cost KSRTC dear

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Monday, Oct 01, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala

Bad roads cost KSRTC dear

Staff Reporter

Mileage of bus falls from 4.16 kmpl to 4 kmpl

—Photo: H. Vibhu

Long way to go: The pathetic condition of roads has cost the KSRTC Rs.21 crore during the period from June to August.

KOCHI: The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation is finding it difficult to operate its fleet of 3,650 buses because of unmotorable roads in most parts of the State.

The Corporation suffered losses totalling Rs.21 crore from June to August end, just because of bad roads and fever. This has increased the Corporation’s monthly loss from Rs.16 crore to Rs.23 crore.

Gloomy picture

Highly placed sources in the Corporation said the monthly additional burden because of increase in demand for fuel, tyre bursts and damage to leaf springs alone has been estimated at Rs.2.5 crore. This is apart from the heavy loss incurred because of wear and tear of mechanical parts, increase in accidents, the steep fall in number of long-distance passengers and cancellation of schedules.

The average mileage of each bus has fallen from 4.16 km per litre to 4 kmpl. This has resulted in a monthly expenditure on fuel alone going up from Rs.28 crore to Rs.30 crore.

“Superfast buses of the Corporation now take three hours to cover the Thrissur-Palakkad stretch, something which took hardly 90 minutes prior to June,” says G. Venugopal, Executive Director (Operations) of the Corporation. Buses which used to have four daily trips now find it difficult to run at least three.

A senior official in the Corporation said the savings to the tune of Rs.2.5 crore every month (pre-June) on fuel bills have been drained away by the pathetic condition of roads.

This, and the fall in mileage of buses, will add to the dues (Rs.130 crore now) that the Corporation owes to IndianOil.

Unhappy workers

The undue delay in repairing roads has affected the collection-based incentives being given to workers. Workers have become demoralised because of buses encountering frequent potholes that take a heavy toll on their (and passengers’) condition.

The pathetic condition of roads has negated the gains made by way of drivers’ training programmes carried out by experts from the Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA), to save fuel, reduce wear and tear, and to increase the lifespan of buses.

Though the training took a breather during the past few months, it resulted in the mileage of each bus increasing to 4.16 kmpl from 3.84 kmpl in 2005.

A PCRA official said that ill-maintained and narrow roads were the bane of Kerala’s transportation sector and these two factors had an impact on the functioning of the KSRTC.

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