The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : State transport corporations to invest Rs. 270 crore on infrastructure

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Monday, Nov 24, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

State transport corporations to invest Rs. 270 crore on infrastructure

Anil Kumar Sastry

They will induct over 4,300 buses and hire 18,000 personnel in 2008-09

The four corporations have drawn up a plan to induct 4,300 new buses
BMTC to acquire 1,600 buses, including Suvarna, Vajra coaches

BANGALORE: The four State Road Transport Corporations will invest nearly Rs. 270 crore on creation of infrastructure, including the rolling stock and civil works during this fiscal, nearly a three-fold increase on the amount spent during the last fiscal.

These corporations have planned to induct over 4,300 new buses to their fleet with Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) proposing to acquire more than 1,600 new buses, including Suvarna and Vajra coaches.

Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) will induct 950 buses, North-West KRTC (NWKRTC) 850 buses and North-East KRTC (NEKRTC) will acquire 900 buses.

The four corporations are on an expansion spree since 2002-03 and inducted 1,882 buses in 2002-03, 1,877 in 2003-04, 1,947 in 2004-05, 2,453 in 2005-06, 3,121 in 2006-07 and 3,571 buses in 2007-08.

The fleet size of all the corporations has touched 20,000 with KSRTC holding the largest of nearly 7,000 buses followed by BMTC’s 5,000, NWKRTC’s 5,000 and NEKRTC’s 3,000 buses.

Depots

Along with augmenting the fleet, the corporations have plans to strengthen the basic infrastructure in the form of bus depots, bus stations and bus shelters. They have proposed to open at least 42 new depots (each depot can cater to nearly 130 buses) — 13 for KSRTC, 11 for BMTC, 10 for NWKRTC and eight for NEKRTC, and 126 bus stations.

The corporations now have 176 depots — KSRTC 61, BMTC 30, NWKRTC 53 and NEKRTC 32. Over 400 bus stands cater to the floating population across the State, including major bus stations in Bangalore, Mangalore, Hassan, Hubli and Mysore.

Some of the major infrastructure projects being taken up include the construction of four inter-modal transit centres (IMTC) at the entry points of Bangalore — Hosur Road, Bellary Road, Tumkur Road and Old Madras Road — to decongest the city roads, and an international standard IMTC at Majestic; seven IMTCs in Mysore under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission and a world-class bus station and depot in Shimoga (Rs. 18 crore). Being the largest public sector employer in the State having nearly 94,000 personnel, the four corporations have hired nearly 38,000 people in the last three years, since they began the expansion plan seriously.

A majority of the employees hired were crew — 9,800 drivers, 2,700 conductors and 20,000 drivers-cum-conductors.

While KSRTC and BMTC hired nearly 13,000 people each, NWKRTC hired 8,500 and NEKRTC 3,700 people. The corporations, according to Transport Minister R. Ashok, will hire not less than 18,000 people during this fiscal. Thus, the manpower of the corporations will cross one lakh by the end of this financial year.

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