BHUBANESWAR: The state government has incurred loss of more than Rs 374 crore under the LAccMI (Location Accessible Multimodal Initiative) bus scheme, Transport minister Bibhuti Bhushan Jena informed the Assembly on Thursday.
Replying to a question from BJP MLA Bibhuti Bhusan Pradhan, the minister said losses amounting to Rs 374,08,58,055 was incurred in running the affordable bus service between October 12, 2023, and August 19, 2024. “The state government spent Rs 399.12 crore on operating the buses across the state under LAccMI scheme during this period against an income of only Rs 25.03 crore,” he added.
In October 2023, the previous BJD government had launched the LAccMI scheme to establish a seamless public transport network from gram panchayats to the State Capital and allocated Rs 3,178 crore for three years from 2023-24 to 2025-26. The BJP government has renamed the scheme as ‘Mukhyamantri Bus Seva’.