The million-rupee question Will all RTCs merge into one?

Nischith N | NT

It is commonly seen across the country that public transport corporations reel under losses during Covid.

There is no easy way out for public transport. Due to the pandemic, only a few buses are being operated as it is very difficult to bring back the confidence of riders and get them to use public transport.

As state-run transport corporations run up huge losses, a demand was made to merge all four corporations.

Since it is difficult to run the corporations depending on government subsidies, a committee headed by retired Additional Chief Secretary MR Srinivasa Murthy has been constituted for restructuring transport corporations. Taking a cue for the neighbouring state, the KSRTC Staff and Workers’ Federation has also recently reiterated its demand to the committee to merge the road transport corporations (KSRTC, BMTC, NWKRTC and KKRTC) into one body.

Now based on the recommendation and feedback by the public, the committee is likely to submit the report by this month’s end, says sources. According to the reports, the committee was stuffed with the feedback from commuters and the public regarding the transport services.

“As unofficial, we can say that 500 plus feedback was received for the commuters and the public. Also, the Workers’ Federation has suggested a few things which will be taken into consideration” says the official. According to the workers federation, merging all the four corporations into one will help in reducing administration cost and ensure quick decision making with a single board in charge “The bifurcation of KSRTC has failed to achieve the desired objectives. One central office became four.

What the travelling public got was four chairmen, four vice-chairmen, four MDs, four central offices with a multiplicity of officers. It has become a top-heavy administration. Four corporations have four boards. These corporations have not been able to find any additional source of income.

These bifurcations, per se have not done any good to the commuters or to the workers or to the organisations. Continuous financial loss, huge debts, and deep discontentment of workmen are the only achievements,” said the federation in its letter.

The reports from the transport department claims that all four corporations are incurring losses so much that KSRTC, BMTC, NWKKTC and KKRTC have incurred losses of Rs 900, Rs 1225, Rs 1457 and Rs 957 Cr respectively totally amounting to Rs 4,540 Cr.

The employees’ dues to an account of Gratuity, EPF, LIC Credit society, DRBF etc. Apart from this it is claimed that Covid pandemics have given lethal blows to both the finances and traffic operations of the RTCs. It is also pointed out that 963 stalls in TTMCs across Karnataka are lying vacant as a dead investment (KSRTC 398, BMTC 100, NWKRTC 235 and NEKRTC 260).

“To dissuade use of cars and two wheelers and to reduce congestion on city routes and to improve free movement of buses the committee recommends not only comfort linked passenger services but also creation of car free zones or two-wheeler free zones on arterial roads in central business districts and to overcome urban transport crisis methods like road pricing, area licencing and land use control should be considered.

Ceiling limit should be imposed on the grant of auto rickshaw cab permits for operation in or on Bangalore City. The federation stated that budgetary allocation should be made available every year for the purchase of new vehicles, construction of depots, and infrastructure needs.”

In 1997, the Karnataka Government decided to bifurcate KSRTC into new corporations such as the Bangalore Metro Transport Corporation (BMTC) and the North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC). In 2000, one more corporation, the KKRTC (formerly NEKRTC), was formed.

But few employees from BMTC still oppose the merging of all four entities. “We are keeping an open mind on this as part of our game-changing reforms that are essential for turning around the sick transport corporations.

It is not that merging will solve all the problems because the government will plan to reduce the manpower. Also running all four corporations under one roof is not that easy point” says Shankar K, BMTC bus driver.

In 2020, all employees of Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation were absorbed into government service to fulfil the election promise made by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Keeping this few federation in Karnataka, employees of Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), Karnataka State Road Transportation Corporation (KSRTC), Kalyana Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (KKRTC) and NorthWestern Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) have been mounting pressure on the government to merge the entities. T