It’s a double whammy for the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) as it is facing dearth of commuters amidst the skyrocketing diesel prices.
Despite resuming services for over a week, the passenger response has not been very encouraging and the revenue isn’t rising as expected, delaying full-scale operations. If the pandemic had severely hit the KSRTC’s earnings, most of its current revenue was going towards fuel.
The KSRTC slowly regained its ground after the impact from last year’s lockdown. Prior to COVID-19, the Mysuru division’s revenue alone was ₹24 crore a month. The Mysuru KSRTC division alone lost nearly ₹70 crore as the buses were off the roads for a long time last year.
The KSRTC division in Mysuru is now asking its drivers to focus on achieving fuel efficiency, imparting them necessary skills on conserving fuel in these difficult times. “Training to drivers for achieving fuel efficiency is not new but we are now stressing it more and subjecting more number of drivers to training amidst rising fuel prices,” said KSRTC Divisional Controller (Rural) K.H. Srinivas.
He said the Mysuru division was only running 50 per cent of its services. “Around 80 per cent of whatever revenue we are earning since the lockdown curbs were eased was going towards fuel because of price hike. Our usual daily revenue was ₹ 85 lakh but it has fallen below ₹40 lakh due to the dearth of commuters,” he explained.
“The division has been running 285 buses, including 70-80 buses to Bengaluru. Until the response is good, we cannot start full-fledged operations, especially when diesel prices are continuing to increase. The price has gone up by nearly ₹14 since the lockdown was announced about two-and-a-half months ago,” he said.
The response to AC buses was very poor and therefore it was running fewer buses to destinations, mostly to Bengaluru.
Resource persons from KSRTC Driving and Technical Training Center at Malavalli usually train drivers on various technical aspects, including fuel efficiency, besides the experts from Petroleum Conservation and Research Association (PCRA) of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Nagaraj, Divisional Controller, Mysuru urban, KSRTC said trainers from these centres routinely conduct sessions at the depots or at the institutes. Now, such training has gained significance.
The intra-city operations in Mysuru are also yet to return to normal. “The passenger traffic is good on Mondays but slows down on the other weekdays. “ Around 75,000 commuters travel on Mondays. Going by the traffic, we run around 280 buses on Monday and 200 on remaining weekdays,” Mr Nagaraj said.
The urban division’s revenue on normal days was ₹30 lakh. Drivers had to wait for the buses to fill up to 50 per cent to operate. Some services were run based on passenger numbers and the frequency of buses was delayed due to the dearth of commuters.
