CHENNAI: Eight bleeding state transport undertakings (STUs) in Tamil Nadu have amassed losses of Rs 25,160 crore in the past four years.The average daily losses rose from Rs 9 crore in 2017-18, as revealed in a government affidavit submitted to the Madras High Court, to Rs 18 crore in 2021-22 as per documents presented in the Assembly recently. The average daily losses, however, dipped to Rs 14.8 crore between April 2022 and February 2023.
Last year, the STUs earned Rs 12,007 crore, of which Rs 6,705.69 crore came from operational revenue (ticket fares) and Rs 5,256.86 crore from non-operational revenue, including advertising. Expenses, however, amounted to Rs 16,985 crore, of which, staff salaries accounted for 53% at Rs 9,015 crore, followed by fuel costs at 28% (Rs 4,815.94 crore).
Meanwhile, the per day patronage of government buses, which had plummeted to 73.64 lakh in 2020-21 amid the Covid-19 pandemic, has leaped to 1.7 crore in 2022-23 (up to February) thanks to the government’s scheme to provide free bus travel for women, trans persons, persons with disabilities and their attendees. The state government fully reimburses the STUs for implementing the scheme.
In order to reduce expenses, official data show that in recent years transport corporations decreased the number of bus trips on several routes. Consequently, the total distance covered by government buses per day decreased from 83.65 lakh km to 77.81 lakh km between 2019-20 and 2022-23. The number of scheduled services has also decreased from 19,290 to 18,723. Still, bus fares have not been revised since January 2018 although fuel expenses have increased by Rs 955 crore over the last four years.
‘10K buses run on economically non-viable routes’
The government claims that TN’s fares are lower than in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Currently, the per kilometre price of ordinary bus tickets is 58 paise, while express and deluxe bus fares are 75 paise/km. In another bid to reduce expenses, the transport department recently proposed allowing private players to operate 500 buses on a gross-cost contract (GCC) basis in Chennai and also decided to hire temporary drivers and conductors to operate buses for SETC, TNSTC (Kumbakonam) and MTC.
The workers’ association of the STUs has expressed strong opposition to these plans and issued a strike notice. A section of transport experts, however, said the performance of STUs, which are operated for the public good, should not be gauged based on earnings. Daniel Robinson, a Chennai-based transport expert, pointed out that public transport corporations worldwide are operating at a loss. “To meet their expenses, the corporations should prioritise increasing non-ticketing revenue such as monetizing land.
Governments should also relax building norms to enable the construction of elevated highrise complexes to increase earnings,” he said. Before considering fare hikes, the profits earned by low-fare buses (ordinary category) should be studied. “If these buses are generating substantial profits, it suggests that people choose them because of their low fare. Therefore, fare increases may not be needed.
Apart from fare, the bus services should be incentivised by providing dedicated lanes thereby reducing the travel time,” added Robinson. Arumuga Nainar, general secretary of the Transport Employees Federation affiliated to the CITU, said nearly 10,000 buses are operated on economically non-viable routes with the intention to serve the people.
“The economic and social value contributed by bus services is many times higher than the revenue generated. The government should compensate the losses to bring down the interest paid towards loans,” he said. He added that TN provides bus services linking remote areas even during late evenings. In contrast, in Kerala, most rural bus stands closed by 8 pm, added Nainar.