Bleeding KSRTC awaits govt support

NIschith N | NT

Though BMTC recently received financial support from the state government, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is still continuing with losses. According to the numbers, KSRTC’s dues is around 1,345.52 crore.

Unless there is sufficient funding from the government, KSRTC will find it difficult to run its operations, and cannot think of adding new services.

“The Corporation has been struggling since the pandemic as the occupancy rate has come down drastically. Though the easing of lockdown had boosted revenue, it was not enough. State government must come in support for the Corporation with some funds,” said a KSRTC senior official.

According to the report, KSRTC dues are as follows: Diesel (Rs 385 crore), Employees’ Provident Fund (Rs 362 crore), Gratuity (Rs 70 crore), MVC Claims (Rs 18 crore) others (Rs 107 crore) and loan repayment (Rs 400 crore).

“A total of 1,345.52 Cr is our pending dues and we are waiting for the government to provide financial support. Though we have requested multiple times, no responses have been received till today. We have somehow managed with the collections, but we are unlikely to see pre-Covid levels of ridership any time soon. Hence, we have to think about non-fare box revenue for the survival,” the official added.

The KSRTC is operating only 7,500 buses out of 8,200 buses. It is claimed that since 2017, Karnataka RTC has not come up with any innovative schemes.

It was also recently reported that the four road transport corporations (RTCs) in Karnataka have collectively made losses of Rs 4,540 crore as on March 2021.