Thiruvanchoor to hold talks with Karnataka counterpart R. Ramalinga Reddy on August 4
Kochi: Kerala State Road Transport Corporation’s plans to operate new interstate services to destinations like Goa and Mumbai this Onam have hit a roadblock due to the delay in signing an agreement with the Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh governments.
“Though we’ve received transit passage through Karnataka, the supplementary agreement is yet to be finalised with certain differences cropping up like mutual operational km. We’d planned the new services by Onam.
Now we’ve to pay tax in the absence of a pact for operating the services which would result in huge losses. Similar is the case with AP government,” said a senior KSRTC official.
However, in a last-minute effort, Transport Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan will hold talks with his Karnataka counterpart R. Ramalinga Reddy on August 4 to arrive at a solution and operate the buses during the festive season.
The KSRTC had earlier announced that it would run air-conditioned multi-axle buses to Panaji, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Tirupati and Puttaparthi from Kozhikode and Ernakulam stations.
It planned to start the services at least by Onam and even started operation of the newly-bought ‘SCANIA Metrolink’ bus in the Thiruvananthapuram-Sultan Bathery route as a “test drive.”
Another challenge is the non-delivery of buses by the manufacturing company. “Though we’ve ordered 20 multi-axle buses, the company delivered only a couple of buses so far,” the official said.
Meanwhile, the KSRTC has slashed the multi-axle Volvo fare in the Bangalore route by up to Rs 100 to woo more commuters during the festive season for which bookings have also commenced.
