Transport researchers and specialists came out against the State government’s plans to issue permits to around 4,000 buses. Stating that the public transport is a service, they maintained that it should not be seen through the prism of profit or loss. For, a report of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) demonstrates that as many as 55 State road transport undertakings have reported losses and the TSRTC is not alone.
According to the MORTH-released Annual Report 2018-19, the 55 SRTUs reported a combined loss of ₹14,213.34 crore in the financial year 2016-17.
The MORTH report stated that the reasons for performance – profit or loss – are contingent upon ‘underlying operational efficiency parameters within each SRTU such as fleet vintage, fleet utilisation, occupancy ratio, staff productivity etc’.
In the previous year, the MORTH report stated that as many as 47 SRTUs were analysed and they posted a combined loss of ₹10,587.98 crore in the financial year 2014-15 and ₹11349.79 crore in 2015-16.
According to transport researcher G.R.S. Chaitanya, the ‘risk’ of revenue should not be on the operator. “It means that they will run the bus for profit and, public transport should never be a profit-making venture. Several of TSRTC’s routes actually make profit. It helps them cover for losses made on city and rural routes,” he said and feared that private players would only focus on profitable routes.
Double whammy
Urban transport specialist Prashanth Bachu offered a different perspective. He said the entry of private players could be a double whammy for regular bus-users. “They could either end up paying more for transport or they have to deal with lower quality of transport modes and services. Because of this, a significant number of people may depend on their own private vehicles which could increase congestion and pollution.” Mr. Bachu points out that many cities across the world are now focusing on improving quality of public transport.
