Transport Minister V. S. Sivakumar said here on Friday that the government had no plans to privatise the State Road Transport Corporation.
The Minister told the media that the opinion expressed by Minister for Panchayats and Social Welfare M. K. Muneer in favour of privatisation might be his personal opinion.
“The government has not even considered privatisation,” Mr. Sivakumar said. One time settlement of KSRTC dues was under consideration.
The Transport Minister said that talks had been initiated about revision of the agreement on Inter-State services to Tamil Nadu.
Currently, the two States were operating services along 28,000 km each in the neighbouring State.
Mr. Sivakumar said that the KSRTC’s losses, which were at Rs. 40 crore a month, had been brought down by Rs. 10 crore in August. In September, the losses might come down to Rs. 25 crore. The daily collections had gone up from an average of Rs. 3.85 crore to Rs. 4.45 crore during the Onam season.
He said that of the 1000 new buses proposed to be purchased by KSRTC this financial year, orders had been placed for 500 buses (chasis) as the first phase. The bodies would be built in KSRTC workshops. The Corporation had plans to operate point to point services. These would be started between Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam on an experimental basis. There would not be any intermediate stops for those services.
He said that a Cabinet subcommittee was overseeing implementation of Sabarimala master plan. A review meeting would be held on September 18 at Sabarimala so as to ensure completion of ongoing works before the season. Steps would be taken for the implementation of the safety manual, prepared against the background of Pulmedu tragedy near Sabarimala, before the season this year.
The Minister said that of the 33 proposals made as part of the 100 Days’ Plan by departments under his charge, 28 had been implemented within the stipulated time. This included 13 of the 15 proposals of the Transport Department and seven of the nine proposals of the Motor Vehicles Department. All five proposals of the Water Transport Department had been carried out.
In the case of Devaswom Department, all expect the proposal to hold a conference of the devaswom ministers from Southern States to prepare a plan for improving facilities for the Sabarimala pilgrimage could be carried out. The conference had to be postponed to October considering the convenience of the Ministers and political problems in Karnataka.
