Kerala State Road Transport Corporation fails to cash in on Onam rush

Kochi: When it comes to raking in moolahs, it seems the KSRTC misses a lesson or two. The corporation has scrapped a proposal to run Volvo buses to Chennai, citing the tenuous procedure of obtaining permit from two governments – Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Also, out of the nine additional services being operated to Bangalore as ‘Onam specials,’ not a single service is being run via the shortest Coimbatore-Salem-Bangalore route. All the services are through the longer Kozhikode-Batheri route.

“There was much demand to operate buses to Chennai. But it’s a lengthy process and requires permit allocation from two states – Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In the past, twice we’ve experimented with services to Chennai from Ernakulam without any success. We’ve no such plans now,” said P.M. Sharaf Mohammed, in charge of executive director (operations).

This comes even as the tickets have been sold out in most of the services operated by private luxury buses running in the ‘Bangalore-Salem-Ernakulam’ route and the Chennai –Vellore-Ernakulam route.