Kerala State Road Transport Corporation collects record Rs 7.33 crore

Kochi: The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) had registered a record collection of Rs 7.33 crore on Monday when it operated full schedules using a total of 5,388 buses. “The revenue collection touched all-time high Rs 7,33,77,970, which is 103 percent of the targeted revenue. Ten out of the 15 depots across the state recorded revenue collection over targets while the others missed out narrowly,” said G. Anil Kumar, executive director (operations). “This even as the average daily collection is only around Rs 5 crore while the target under the ‘Save KSRTC’ campaign is Rs 6 crore." Meanwhile, the corporation is gearing up to introduce buses to new interstate destinations such Goa, Hyderabad, Velankanni, Rameshwaram (Tamil Nadu) and Hasan (Karnataka) among others in its bid to shore up revenue.

“The inter-state transit agreement with Karnataka is almost finalised while several rounds of discussions were held with counterparts in Tamil Nadu. The political development there has resulted in a delay in arriving at a pact. Now a ministerial level meeting is pending while the basic plan as to kilometres and routes has been worked out,” a senior official said. The KSRTC officials also aim to deploy more inter-state buses to Bangalore via the shortest route of Coimbatore-Salem once the agreement with Tamil Nadu is signed. “Currently we’ve passes for only eight buses via Salem. We’re forced to conduct services through the longer Kutta route due to this, leading to passenger complaints,” the official said.