Thiruvananthapuram: Several air-conditioned buses are low on floors, given to KSRTC under the mission of the National Urban Update Nehru Jawaharlal (JNNURM), is in an off-road condition because of the weight of their maintenance and preferences are low by the public in Post-Pericem Pandemi, Said Biju Prabhakar, Chair and Managing Director, KSRTC.
Of the 190 air-conditioned buses on the low floor, which with the KSRTC given to the corporation under JNNURM, 110 buses are ready to continue service while the rest are in off-road conditions, he said.
Responding to the report that the JNNURM bus rusted at the KSRTC depot in Thevara, Ernakulam, CMD said that because of their larger body and higher fingers, the bus had not been found useful for city services and used for long service distance.
He said that as many as 32 buses operated on the Thiruvananthapuram-Kozhikode route and 18 on the route Pamba-Nilackal.
After Covid-19 hit, the bus must stop service because the public does not prefer air-conditioned buses.
Even then, from bus 190, 110 ready to continue service.
Of the remaining 80 buses, three buses ended in 2018, 20 and five in 2020.
Maintenance and repair of this vehicle require at least Rs 5 Crore, which is not possible, given the severe financial crisis that the KSRTC is passing through.
Even though the remaining 110 is ready for surgery, because of passenger’s illness, the service has been postponed, he said.
CMD said that 55-60% of the income received by the KSRTC must be spare and fuel and from the rest, the loan must be repaid.
In this situation, it is difficult to find money to repair this bus.
He said that the current corporate priority is to prepare 680 buses for roads, but only 220 can be paid because of the large financial responsibility.
The JNNURM bus only has a distance of 2.63 kmpl, and because Diesel rates rose to Rs 103 per liter, the JNNURM bus fee was almost Rs 40 per km.
With the addition of costs for spare parts and tires, it will be Rs 50-55 per km for this bus.
Even so, the low floor air conditioning bus below JNNURM does not have a market.
In this situation, the question before the KSRTC management is whether money must be spent on buses with more mileage and people who should choose to travel or low-floor AC buses, he said.