THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the Makaravilakku season at Sabarimala underway, KSRTC aims to improve its average daily collection to over `9 crore this month. In the previous month, KSRTC managed to achieve an average daily collection of Rs 8.5 crore.
The Sabarimala season is usually a major revenue earner for KSRTC. It deploys close to 1,000 buses from various depots for Pampa-Nilakkal chain service, long-distance services and circular services. The number of buses is expected to increase on the occasion of Makara Jyothi Darshan on January 14.
Last year, KSRTC deployed around 800 buses. “The pilgrim season has been quite good for KSRTC. The collection peaks during the Makaravilakku season,” said an official. According to him, the average daily Sabarimala collection alone would be more than `75 lakh.
KSRTC has been given a daily target of `9 crore so that it can operate the services profitably after servicing the loans.
KSRTC has deployed additional buses for Sabarimala without affecting the operations from other depots.
“Earlier we used to take out buses from other depots. This time we have planned carefully to use new buses and reduce off-road buses to ensure the services,” said the official.
KSRTC achieved an all-time record in daily revenue collection, earning `11.53 crore before the holiday season began, on December 15. Of this, `10.77 crore came from ticket sales, while non-ticket income contributed `0.76 crore.