[highlight color=”yellow”]More services to cater to Onam rush: Managing Director[/highlight]
The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) said here on Monday that it was operating the largest number of services during Onam this year when compared to the figures during the festival season in the previous years.
Denying reports that it was failing to introduce new buses and maintain service levels during Onam, K.G. Mohanlal, Chairman and Managing Director of the corporation, said it was operating 5,250 services, including those with 250 buses brought under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.
On certain days, the number of services operated had risen to 5,300. During the previous Onam season, the corresponding figure was only 5,013. During Onam in 2010, only 4,813 services had been in operation.
He said the corporation was operating additional services to major centres in the State to cater for the Onam rush. Additional inter-State services had been operated to Bangalore while maintaining other services.
He said the KSRTC had a fleet of 6,153 buses and 10 per cent of these were in the workshop for repairs and maintenance. Most of the buses were being made roadworthy.
Tyres and spares were being purchased despite financial stringency.
The number of bus bodies being built had increased to 90 a month.
The employees had been given the maximum benefits during Onam. This had helped in achieving worker satisfaction and operation of additional services.
The KSRTC Employees’ Association (CITU), however, said in a statement that the number of buses in service had increased by only 49 since the previous Onam season.
Only 163 new buses had been pressed into service during the one-year period.
K.K. Divakaran, working president of the association, maintained that cancellation of services had become frequent. Spare parts were not available as required.
Though purchase of 1,000 new buses was proposed in 2011, even half the number could not be added to the fleet over the past year and a half. Of the 5,491 schedules, only 4,796 were being operated. More than 150 buses had been withdrawn from service during the past 10 days.
Source: The Hindu
