Thiruvananthapuram: A new central rule regarding bus permits may worsen the crisis faced by the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) as well as public carriers of other states.
With the relaxation of National Permit rules, private buses with national permits would be able to conduct services on any route in India and the KSRTC authorities feel that this would adversely affect the revenue of the public carrier. In fact, the main source of income for the KSRTC is the ticket collection from around 1,200 long-distance buses.
Officials fear that the private buses would woo passengers offering better facilities and promising punctuality, leading to losses for the KSRTC. These private carriers are also expected to encroach into the nationalised routes, where the KSRTC currently enjoys a monopoly.
“We will hold a meeting this week to discuss the development. All measures, including approaching the Supreme Court against the Centre’s policy, will be considered,” said Kerala’s Transport Minister Antony Raju.
No clarity yet
Meanwhile, officials in Kerala said that national permits would be issued to private buses only to conduct tourist services.
“We will seize buses with national permits if they carry regular passengers,” said Transport Secretary and Chairman and Managing Director of KSRTC Biju Prabhakar.
Incidentally, a bus with an all-India permit was seized by the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) officials recently when it tried to conduct a super-fast service from Pathanamthitta to Coimbatore.
Contract carriages well on roads
Meanwhile, a large number of private buses have been conducting services to places such as Chennai and Bengaluru for years as contract carriages. However, the state government does not take action against these private buses as transportation facilities to these cities are grossly inadequate from the state. Moreover, these contract carriages do not display name boards of destinations. They issue tickets only through online mode and are not permitted to take passengers from intermediary stops.
Even though numerous such contract carriages ply in Kerala, the government can take action against them anytime. But, when the Centre’s policy on national permits comes into force, the state authorities would be helpless.
