KSRTC cancels buses due to lack of diesel

 The commuters in the district are having a harrowing time after KSRTC cancelled trips due to a shortage of diesel in depot pumps. 
The huge rush to board KSRTC bus in Kochi  Melton Antony
The huge rush to board KSRTC bus in Kochi  Melton Antony

KOCHI:  The commuters in the district are having a harrowing time after KSRTC cancelled trips due to a shortage of diesel in depot pumps. Many trips have been curtailed and all services face kilometre loss. “Almost all units have a shortage in diesel,” said Mohan P N, the assistant traffic officer in Piravom. “As we don’t have a fuel pump in Piravom, we usually fill up the buses at major depots such as Ernakulam, Kottayam, Moovattupuzha and Pala. But, when there is a shortage at depots, the buses are stuck there, which obviously result in the reduced number of services. Many important trips have been cancelled due to this.” 

In Piravom, on Monday alone, a kilometre loss of 400 km was recorded. While a bus station normally runs more than 300 units a day, 50 trips were curtailed on Monday alone. KSRTC’s Angamaly depot has been facing diesel shortage since the end of last week. Trips to nearby villages such as Mulankuzhy and Mookkannoor, Chalakkudy and Aluva were cancelled causing much headache and inconvenience to commuters. As a temporary relief to KSRTC, diesel was brought to the depot the other day.

“Subsequently, all services have resumed their services. We are hoping more diesel will be brought soon,” said K M Jaleel, district transport officer at Angamaly.Even while this is the situation, those at the helm of KSRTC are standing firm to the idea of cutting those services which have fewer collections.

“The price of diesel has increased from Rs 64.78 per litre on March 1 to Rs 73.32 on September 3. So KSRTC has cut 15 per cent diesel,” said Tomin J Thachankary, chairman and managing director of KSRTC. “We have reduced just 10 per cent of the trips. We need the help of the state government. But they cannot change the prices of the fuel either.

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