After the trial run of rescheduled Attingal-Varkala chain service surprisingly started making profits, the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) higher authorities are all set to reschedule majority of the non-profitable services across the state.
Authorities are currently preparing a detailed state-wide list of schedules that register over Rs 5,000 loss every day or services not beneficial to public.
Earlier, corporation managing director had announced rescheduling the Attingal-Varkala chain service from last week. Before the service was rescheduled, collection from these services stood between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500 less than the operational cost, making a collective loss of about Rs 75,000 every day to the corporation. Ever since the service was rescheduled, collection in these buses has gone up by Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 thus reducing the total operational cost of the corporation.
“Rescheduling Attingal-Varkala chain service has turned out to be a profitable move. We are now preparing a state-wide list of routes to be rescheduled. While services during rush hours will not be changed, other services in a non-profitable route will be either cancelled or redrawn. The aim is to reduce maximum operational loss possible,” said a senior officer, adding that rescheduling non-profitable routes will be carried out only after discussing with authorised employees’ unions.
Ever since KSRTC started its transport service it has been operating hundreds of loss-making services owing to commitment towards passengers, people’s representatives and its own employees. Of the total 5,870 services operated by the corporation, authorities had earlier identified about 1,300 non-profitable services. “We cannot completely stop these non-profitable services like private operators. If we were a private firm we would have scrapped at least half of the total 5,870 services that are operated owing to the pressure from government and political leaders. We hope the modification will bring down the loss of the corporation considerably,” a senior officer had said last week when the corporation rescheduled the Attingal-Varkala chain service.
Times of India
