The North West Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) has 1,364 vacancies, including posts at both lower and higher levels. Out of the 23,304 posts in the Corporation, 21,940 have been filled. In the higher rung of the administration, there are around 50 vacancies.
NWKRTC’s in-charge Managing Director Noor Mansur said the shortage exists because of the additional buses added to its fleet.
“In 2012, NWKRTC received 504 buses from the State government. Considering that each bus requires five people per route, including drivers, conductors and maintenance personnel, there is definitely a shortage of manpower at NWKRTC.
However, physical and driving tests are being conducted for drivers at the moment and we are sure the vacant posts of drivers will be filled up in a month. In all, we are positive that all the posts will be filled up by the end of the year,” he said.
Asked about what can be done to have adequate manpower, Mansur opined that recruitment has to be carried out at the zonal level.
“The recruitment for posts at lower levels is done right here. However, recruitment for the higher rung in the administration is carried out at the state level,” Mansur said. NWKRTC is also all set to receive an additional 420 buses under the JNNURM scheme. On the reason for NWKRTC suffering losses, Mansur attributed it to private transport operators. It also plans to make buses GPS-enabled, whose uses include monitoring of buses, passenger load capacity in a bus and easy ticketing for commuters through electronic means.