KSRTC to work in three zones
Amalgamation of the existing five zones in the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) to three zones and entrusting their control to the zonal officers, armed with sweeping powers, as mooted by the Sushil Khanna commission to strengthen the service operations will take off on Wednesday.
Under the new dispensation to be launched by Transport Minister A.K. Saseendran by inaugurating the Thiruvananthapuram zone, the practice of District Transport Officer (DTO) in the district headquarters has been dispensed with immediate effect.
Zonal officers G. Anil Kumar (south), M.T. Sukumaran (central) and C.D. Rajendran (north) have been asked to directly report to Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Tomin J. Thachankary. The new south zone will take care of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, and Pathanamthitta districts.
Alappuzha, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Idukki and Thrissur will come under the central zone with Ernakulam as headquarters. The north zone, with Kozhikode as headquarters, will take care of Malappuram, Palakkad, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod.
Sweeping powers
The zonal officers have been given administrative, operational, and financial powers. They can deploy all categories of employees under them on exigency of service, transfer them for working arrangement, initiate disciplinary action and review confidential report.
Besides, they have been tasked to provide leadership to motivate performance and maintain good industrial relations.
Duties earmarked
Setting targets for physical performance parameters such as fleet utilisation, vehicle utilisation, steering duty time, earning per kilometre (EPKM), KMPL, tyre mileage, break down, accident rate, among others, will be the responsibility of the officers. They have also been tasked to rationalise schedules, routes, deploy buses and to monitor the service operations daily.
On the mechanical front, the officers have to undertake value analysis and render help to purchase in rating of suppliers, take up fleet modernisation and assure quality of the fleet.
Vehicle replacement
Besides, they have to evolve plans for vehicle replacement, achieve tyre consumption norms, ensure achievement of KMPL and labour productivity. Evolving and meeting revenue targets, coordination of activities of depots, powers of local purchase of ₹5,000 daily subject to a maximum of ₹50,000 per month have also been delegated to them.
The officers have been given powers to undertake civil works of ₹50,000 at a time subject to a maximum of ₹5 lakh a year.
