The loss-making Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) is seeking to turn a corner with major changes in its tendering process for awarding works to private companies and contractors.
This year, the State transport utility is set to save a little over Rs 150 crore by simply tightening norms while dealing with private companies for diesel, maintenance of the electronic ticketing system and licensing of commercial spaces inside MSRTC depots.
The transport body has been in the news for the financial mess it finds itself in, and reports from its vigilance department alleging violations in norms for e-tendering of scrap material, disappearance of tickets worth Rs 1 crore and losses on account of encroachment on MSRTC property. The changes in the norms of various tenders are expected to bring in much-needed revenue this year.
For example, officials said, the service charge on generation of an e-ticket that the corporation pays to contractor Trimax IT Infrastructure and Services has been reduced to Rs 0.33 per ticket from the earlier Rs 0.40. These tender conditions were tweaked on December 10, 2015, when the five-year contract with Trimax was renewed by the MSRTC board.
“The MSRTC will generate 800 crore tickets in the next five years, so a saving of seven paise on each ticket is expected to bring in an additional Rs 56 crore in revenue,” a senior official said.
The Trimax system for the Electronic Ticket Issuing Machine (ETIM) is used in fare collections, and the company also provides a system to enable cashless transactions through smart cards as well as GPRS connectivity for real-time synchronisation.
At the board meeting on December 10, members were also able to convince diesel companies that supply 14 lakh litres of fuel every day to 20,000-odd buses, to offer a discount of Rs 1.10 on every litre purchased. This is expected to save MSRTC about Rs 52 crore, officials said.
The licensing conditions for leasing commercial space were also altered in the same meeting, and the new rules include sanctioning of additional space if required by the licensee.
This is likely to bring in Rs 47.56 crore in rent from 2,767 commercial establishments inside the bus depots.
“Nearly 770 of these establishments have carried out extensions and encroachments, and if guidelines are applied properly it is likely to earn substantial revenue for MSRTC in the future,” a senior official from the vigilance department said.