Vehicles will be repaired and operationalised to meet festival season demand. Crew
to be recruited on daily-wage basis. Around 25% of regular crew will also be deployed
The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is readying to recruit crew members on a daily-wage basis to operate 1,300 of its buses idling in the past two years due to various reasons, including the COVID-19 outbreak.
The buses are part of the agency’s fleet of 5,200 buses. They will be repaired and operationalised, in keeping with the increase in demand during the festival season.
There is also a need to clear space that the idling buses occupy at depots, since efforts are under way to induct 500 new buses (a bulk of them in KSRTC-Swift that operates long-distance services), official sources said.
Other issues
Over 900 old buses, including costly low-floor ones, that became inoperable due to slack maintenance had been sent for scrapping earlier this year. The resultant shortage of buses was accentuated by the agency’s alleged inability to operate the 1,300 buses, inviting flak from commuters and others.
Apart from crew members deployed on a daily-wage basis, the idling buses will be operated by regular crew members as the implementation of the new duty pattern has resulted in streamlining of the deployment of crew members. They will be able to operate 700 of the 1,300 buses, the sources said.
Fleet utilisation
As per the Sushil Khanna report, KSRTC’s fleet utilisation is 83%, amongst the lowest in the country. This further fell to 74% following the new duty pattern. This also threw up the possibility of redeploying around 25% of the crew members to operate the idling buses, they added.
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