Transport corporations in red, seek fare hike

Chennai: With the transport department claiming that it would bear the additional expense incurred due to the 7 per cent  increase in dearness allowance to all its employees which comes up to around Rs144 crore per annum, the sector which is already reeling under losses in excess of Rs 6,500 crore, is expect to seek further assistance from government to bail itself out from the financial mess.

Union leaders who have been negotiating with the department claim that the losses are only compounding for the eight state transport undertakings by at least Rs700 crore with every passing year. Senior transport officials however claim that the recent drop in diesel prices might offer some respite. “As of now, we will be managing the additional expense of Rs144 crore with cash that has been offset by reduced diesel prices and press for more subsidy from government. We are also trying to improve revenue of STUs by constructing commercial complexes at bus stands and branch offices in the public private partnership mode,” said a senior transport official.

When the AIADMK government came to power in 2011, the eight STUs were already reeling under a combined cumulative loss of Rs 6,150.97 crore. Transport officials claim that the losses had not been addressed as the then government was planning to privatise the entire service. “The previous government had deliberately not addressed the mounting losses which have made it difficult for us to recover,” says a senior transport official.

Since the change of government, the state has pumped in at least Rs1,298 crore as subsidy to revive the ailing STUs and has also tried to introduce new channels of revenue generation. “One of the main reasons for the huge loss is that fare revisions have been seldom on par with fuel price hike. While diesel prices have been steadily increasing at least a dozen times every year, we rarely increase our fares. Even now, TN is among the least expensive states for bus travel across the country,” he says.

Some transport workers believe that they are the worst sufferers due to government’s populist measure of not revising fares along with rise in fuel prices and providing free bus passes to students, senior citizens, etc. “Whenever we go for a wage revision or even demand genuine payment of gratuity and pension, there is so much resistance as officials cite the losses incurred by the department. We ask them to gradually increase prices but that seldom happens which makes us the worst sufferers,” says the leader of a prominent union. State officials however point out that they will not be revising fares despite the hike in diesel prices.

They claim that the present government has taken a number of measures to improve the performance of STUs such as increasing fuel efficiency per kilometer from 5.25 to 5.30 kilometers per litre. At present the average age of the fleet is 5.02 years which is lower than in the past. The cluster of 12 transport unions in the state has been constantly pressing for the formation of a joint committee to look into the woes of the department and address them accordingly. While state government has agreed to this in principle, no action has been initiated so far. The transport corporations together operate services with an aim to carry more than 2.10 crore passengers by operating 91.20 lakh kilometers every day. A total of 1.43 lakh people are employed with the STUs.