Delay in repair of buses pegs KSRTC back on spl occasions

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: On Thursday, it was a wasted opportunity for some of the city-based depots of KSRTC. With the private bus drivers declaring a flash strike on Thursday afternoon alleging assault on a private bus driver by police, KSRTC saw a chance to increase its revenue go begging, which most of the depots failed to utilize, thanks to the shortage of buses.
With around 20% of its buses are under repair on a daily basis, the four major city depots of KSRTC - City, Vikas Bhavan, Vellanad and Pappanamcode - find it hard to operate additional schedules or any special services on such occasions.
Around 65 buses of these depots undergo maintenance daily, leading to a 30% fall in the number of registered schedules operated. The KSRTC staff said the delay in repair of the buses affects the schedules.
From the allotted 100 buses at City depot, only 85 buses are regularly operated. This affects the total number of schedules, which have decreased from 141 to 101. On special occasion like festivals, request for additional buses is sent to depots in other districts.
Vikas Bhavan depot operates around 74 buses in 76 schedules, while 95 buses are registered at the depot. Despite the shortage of buses, the depot managed to operate two additional services to Medical College on Thursday.
The Pappanamcode depot, which is notorious for cancellation of schedules for the past several months, operates nearly 82 of its 98 buses. "We are not able to operate special schedules due to the unavailability of reserve buses. Cancellation of schedules affect the target revenue collection of the depot, which is around Rs 7,20,000. The empanelled staff are the once who suffer due to service cancellation, whose wages depends on the number of services operated," said a staff at the depot.
Around 10 buses of Vellanad depot, which operates services to the rural routes in the district, are found in workshop for CF, maintenance or repair work daily. Unavailability of buses has already contributed to cutting its schedules to 45 from 64.
KSRTC officials cited fund crunch as the reason for delay in repair of buses. "Apart from the poor revenue collection, schedules are sometimes cancelled due to shortage of buses. There have been instances when a bus remains in workshop for months due to the unavailability of spare parts. Fund constraints hold KSRTC back from buying spare parts on time," said a KSRTC official who preferred anonymity.