PANAJI: Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar has said that the state government has a proposal to take over the private buses plying on the Canacona-Margao route and run them under the management of Kadamba Transport Corporation Limited (KTCL) on a trial basis.
The proposal was mooted sometime back and the government has perhaps decided to implement it now.
The government had earlier proposed to compensate the owners of the buses by giving them a fixed sum of amount. The Chief Minister further said that the staff of the private buses would be retained.
Speaking as a chief guest at a function organised in Panaji to celebrate the 36th anniversary of KTCL on Dussehra day on Tuesday, he expressed the need to curb reckless driving of private buses and said it happens because of the unhealthy competition among the bus operators. Poorly trained and immature drivers are also the cause for accidents involving private buses, he said. “We will soon hire all the private buses operating on the Canacona-Margao route and also retain their drivers and conductors. It has been observed that due to an increase in the number of buses with fewer passengers, over-speeding and ill-behaviour of the bus staff towards the passengers is prevalent. In the long run, neither the passengers nor the bus operators gain anything out of this unhealthy competition” he said.
Those present at the function included Transport Minister Ramakrishna Dhavalikar, Transport director Sunil Masurkar, KTCL chairman Carlos Almeida, KTCL managing director Derrick Neto, KTCL deputy general manager S L Ghate and directors of the Corporation.
While announcing the long-awaited proposal of introducing GPS-GPRS technology for the Kadamba buses, Dhavalikar said, “We will soon introduce the GPS-GPRS technology in KTC buses. This will help in monitoring of the buses and tracking their speed. Apart from the GPS, the buses will also have closed circuit cameras as a security feature. In other words, the controllers at the headquarters and bus stations will be able to track whether a bus is travelling at the prescribed speed limit and whether there are any problems with the bus like a mechanical failure or any accident.”
“The improvement in the financial condition and performance of KTCL will be possible only with hard work and dedication of the employees” he said, observing that there is still a gap of Rs 19 between revenue and expenditure for every kilometre. He further stressed on operational effectiveness, new management strategies, government support and focus on marketing and commuter relations as the strategies for making profits.
Almeida said that the balance sheet shows that the Corporation has earned a profit of Rs 519.54 lakh and revenue has been improved by almost 3 per cent, while the expenditure has been reduced to 6.62 per cent, this financial year. “We have accepted the challenge to make the Corporation more efficient and meet future challenges to make KTCL self reliable and self sufficient by 2018,” he said.
The KTCL has also launched mobile phone application for multiple transit system that will provide bus timetable, route maps and will have ETA (estimated time of arrival) of the respective bus at respective place so that commuters can plan their travel accordingly and also renew passes online. It has also introduced bus passes in the form of RFID cards to avoid loss and damages. A souvenir was also released and employees, who have provided good service were presented with mementos and certificates.