Taking a leaf out of the Indian Railways’ book, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is setting up an in-house packaged drinking water plant on the lines of ‘Rail Neer’.The move, aimed at providing bottled water to long-distance passengers, is expected to save the corporation money.
The trifurcated bus transport entity -KSRTC along with North-East and North-West transport utilities -supplies a half-litre mineral water bottle to each passenger in about 2,000 premier bus services every day .The cost incurred by the corpora tion on these water bottles is Rs 5 crore a year.
Once ready, the plant will churn out its own brand of water, which will be sourced from the city’s water utility, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board. The packaged water is expected to be sold at bus stations as well.
Earlier in 2014, KSRTC ventured into the setting up of an in-house laundry to wash bus curtains and blankets that are provided to passengers instead of outsourcing the task. “The blanket washing plant has helped KSRTC save Rs 5 lakh in a period of nine months.
Rajender Kumar Kataria, managing director, KSRTC, said the project is under serious consideration.“Besides setting up a plant for packaged drinking water, we are also exploring options of providing water vending machines and high-end reverse osmosis plants at all bus stations,“ he said.
“KSRTC procures about 15,000 bottles of water every day. With an in-house plant, we will sell water at the bus stations at a nominal rate as a goodwill measure. On the whole, the project will help us save about 60% of the cost,“ Kataria added.
