BENGALURU: “Public transport services not only in Karnataka, but across India and the globe, make more losses than profits,” Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy claimed in the Council on Wednesday. Reddy added that all four state-run transport corporations -- KSRTC, KKRTC, NWKRTC, and BMTC -- together have incurred losses of over Rs 5,200 crore in the past five years.
In his reply to a question raised by BJP MLC Keshav Prasad on the status of losses incurred by bus corporations and the measures taken to revive them, the minister said, “A village is considered as having a bus service, if it has a government bus service within a radius of 1.5 km.
Taking that into account, we state that we are providing bus services to nearly 97% of the villages in the state. Of all the bus services, 40% are loss-making, 30% have no profit no loss, while only the remaining 30%, the ones operated on long-routes -- are seeing profits.”
He told the House that the government is operating buses on all routes, irrespective of them bringing profits or losses.
This system is different from the private sector, which only plies on profit-generating routes.
He said that the cost of operations increased steadily year-on-year, coupled with a steady rise in the rate of diesel, the salaries of employees, hike in the prices of spares, and other expenses leading to loss.
On the measures taken to cut losses, Reddy said they have increased ticket fares by 15 per cent and are focussing on non-ticket revenue.