THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The KSRTC will be forced to do away with some 1,000 services, if it presses ahead with its plan to operate schedules only on profitable routes.
As per the Corporation’s assessment till January 31, 1,819 services spread across five zones fetched it a daily revenue of less than Rs 10,000. Based on the findings, some of the services were modified by altering the routes, shortening the length of the service and rescheduling.
“We still have around 1,000 services that make very little profit. A final call will be taken after the CMD(who is away in UP on poll duty) gets back,” said Sharaf Mohammed, executive director(operations), KSRTC.
Of the five zones, Kollam tops the list with 558 loss-making services followed by Ernakulam(436), Thiruvananthapuram(360), Kozhikode(289)and Thrissur(176). KSRTC will also do away with most of the stay-bus services except those on the nationalised route over which it has exclusive rights.
The fleet pulled out of the loss-making routes will be used to run more chain services and start new services. Nedumangad- Palode-Kulathupuzha; Anchal-Palode; Chadayamangalam-Kollam; Chengannur-Pathanamthitta; Adoor-Pathanamthitta; Adoor-Angamoozhy and Malappuram-Ponnani are some of the services in the pipeline.
However,the KSRTC authorities made it clear the services to far-flung areas would not be affected. There are less than 100 such services,though. With high overhead costs, the KSRTC has to shell out Rs 8,000 or more for a service and it needs a return of at least Rs 10,000 to ensure profitability.