Minister for Transport R. Ramalinga Reddy on Wednesday said the State road transport corporations (RTCs) will rationalise operations and cut down on unprofitable trips to check losses.
This is one of the several measures being adopted by the corporations to bring down losses and make their operations sustainable, he told presspersons here.
Mr. Reddy said the four RTCs — Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), North West KRTC (NWKRTC) and North East KRTC (NEKRTC) — have enough buses in their fleet. What is required is to put these buses to maximum benefit of the corporations as well as passengers.
‘Almost empty’Over a period of time, the corporations have deployed more buses on many routes to expand operations. This has resulted in many buses running almost empty, especially during off-peak hours, Mr. Reddy said. During a recent tour, he was witness to several buses belonging to KSRTC, NWKRTC and NEKRTCs running empty on the Tumkur sector.
The bus routes will not be cancelled, but the number of trips on such routes will be reduced to avoid running empty buses, he said. However, the corporations would not cut down short-distance trips and obligatory routes that connect villages with nearby towns.
So far, 150 trips have been cancelled by the three corporations.
Asked about mushrooming of clandestine operations by maxi-cab and private bus operators across the State, Mr. Reddy said illegal operations by cabs have almost been curbed in the limits of NWKRTC and NEKRTC. Those corporations would operate adequate number of buses to cater to demand, he said.
On the other hand, he cited the excuse of shortage of motor vehicle inspectors in the Transport Department to check clandestine operations in other parts of the state. Still, the department would make efforts to curb illegal operations, Mr. Reddy said.
