Bengaluru: Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has taken a major decision to cancel the trip if there are shortage of passengers in the far-flung areas. 

Due to continuous price hike in diesel, State Road Transport Corporations have suffered a total loss of Rs. 1,121 crore. Some of the toughest decisions have been made in terms of resource mobilisation and saving in a variety of ways so as not to burden on the passengers. 

Transport Minister B. Sriramulu, who for the first time held a high-level meeting with the officials of Department, after taking over the Transport Department, has come to this decision where he said, “If there are large numbers of buses travelling in the same city for a short period of time, the bus carrying lesser passengers will be cancelled and passengers of that bus will be allocated in a single bus travelling to the same location”.

While speaking to the media after the meeting, Sriramulu said, “The Department has suffered huge losses as empty buses have been operating in many places in the far flung areas. Have instructed the officials that service should be made profitable by the transport authorities, to compensate for the loss of passengers and bring the industry to a profitable path,” said the Minister.

“A task force will be formed in order to control the revenue pilferage. It is now decided to take more electric buses to reduce the diesel dependency. Cashless tickets will be issued at Transportation Departments using modern technology. There is no money to pay salary for the transport workers, for which the State Government has to pay Rs. 2,551 crore. The next step would be to make the Transport Department more profitable”, he added.