“To address the shortage of buses and staff, the government is purchasing new buses and recruiting additional personnel. Over 10,000 additional trips will be operated to restore the suspended services”, said Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy.
“The government has also approved the recruitment of 250 technical staff to mitigate the staffing shortfall. In the current financial year, KSRTC plans to hire 2,000 drivers cum conductors and 300 technical staff. There are also plans to hire drivers under outsourcing,” Reddy added. In the past year, 2,236 new buses have been added to the KSRTC fleet, and 970 old buses have been refurbished. “We assure the public that the department is committed to resolving these issues and enhancing services for passengers”, Reddy said.
BMTC used to operate 6,185 buses before March 2020. However, even after the ridership bounced back post Covid lockdown, BMTC is operating 5,587 buses daily reflecting that the current buses operationalised are 598 fewer than during the Covid times. Similarly, KSRTC used to operate 8,136 buses before Covid, but now it is operating only 7,426 buses, which is 562 less than the pre-Covid era.
With plans on increasing the fleet in the coming months Reddy stated, “During the current financial year, we plan to procure 100 feeder buses, 840 BS 6 diesel buses, 20 midi buses, five double-decker air conditioned buses (NCAP), five double-decker buses (DULT), 921 electric buses under Gross Carriage Contract. Under the GCC (Gross Cost Contract) model, buses are acquired from private or government agencies, and the drivers are supplied by the bus providers. BMTC/KSRTC operates the buses with conductors and compensates the bus owner based on the per-kilometer usage. Besides this, the government, under a special package, has provided INR 150 crore grant to procure 320 AC electric buses, and administrative approval has also been accorded. In the first tranche, INR 95.35 crore has been released, and the tender process is going on.”
He further added that during the financial year 2023-24, BMTC plans to recruit 2,500 conductors. Reddy highlighted, “Administrative approval has been given to procure 250 new buses, and for this, the first tranche of INR 62.35 crore has been released, and the procurement process is going on.” The new buses include 25 ordinary (Karnataka Sarige) buses, and around 100 ordinary buses, for which orders have been released, and 90 have been supplied. Approximately 40 non-AC sleeper buses (Pallaki) have been procured along with four AC and four non-AC sleeper buses. KSRTC is also planning to expand its electric vehicles fleet by procuring 300 buses under GCC.
BMTC operates 6,383 buses and carries approximately 5.02 million passengers daily, generating a revenue of INR 5.76 crore per day (BMTC 2017). With 176 stations, and 8642 buses, KSRTC generates a daily income of INR 1350 lakh on an average.
Post the increase in prices of petrol and diesal in Karnataka in June 2024, Reddy hinted that if there is a proposal to increase fares, it will be reviewed in public friendly manner.
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