Thiruvananthapuram: The State Finance Department has agreed to provide the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) with Rs 20 crore after the Chief Minister’s intervention. The public transporters had to cancel several bus services in the last few days for want of money to buy diesel.
Nevertheless, the travel crisis across the State is likely to continue today and tomorrow, as the funds may be received only by Tuesday. More than 800 services were cancelled across Kerala on Saturday.
Some depots could operate long-distance services only after they were permitted to buy diesel from private petrol pumps using the ticket collection amount. Many more ‘Ordinary’ services are likely to be cut down today.
The finance situation worsened as the KSRTC paid the salary to the staff using the ticket revenue when it did not receive the funds from the Finance Ministry. With this, the KSRTC was left with no money to buy diesel.
The diesel crisis can be resolved at least for the time being only if Rs 13 crore is handed over to the oil companies. The Finance Ministry had agreed to provide KSRTC with Rs 50 crore — Rs 30 loan repayments and Rs 20 crore salary payment — every month. Now, the department is to give the Rs 20 crore balance from last month’s assured sum of Rs 50 crore.
Services hit mostly in rural regions
With most of the ‘Ordinary’ services cancelled on Saturday, people were left in the lurch as there were not enough services being operated in the rural regions. The decision is to further cut down services on Sunday as it is a holiday.
The depot authorities are in a quandary on how to operate more buses on Monday. Usually, the KSRTC witnesses more travellers on Mondays. When about 16 lakh persons travel by KSRTC buses on usual days, the numbers soar to above 20 lakh on Mondays.
If the fund approved by the Finance department is handed over to the Corporation by Monday, all services are expected to resume from Tuesday.
The number of services cancelled in various districts: Kollam (150), Pathanamthitta (37), Alappuzha (34), Kottayam (77), Ernakulam (70), Thrissur (12), Palakkad (33), Malappuram (3), Kozhikode (61), Wayanad (86), Kannur (139), Kasaragod (18).
