THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: KSRTC has announced that the number of buses under maintenance has come down to under 500. In January, Transport Minister K B Ganesh Kumar had issued a target to reduce the rate of off-road buses to below 5% of the fleet strength. There were around 1,000 buses under maintenance at various garages. KSRTC has since made several initiatives to improve the conditions of the workshops.
The key to reducing the off-road rate has been the improvement in the operational efficiency of their workshops, said KSRTC CMD Pramoj Shankar, in a statement. “KSRTC plans to maintain the off-road rate of buses at 5% and to reduce operational costs through regular maintenance,” he added. KSRTC has a fleet of 5,529 buses while KSRTC Swift has 434 buses.
As part of the programme, KSRTC implemented the shift system in central regional workshops to ensure the availability of mechanics and the supply of necessary spare parts on time.
They also gave a production target for repairing the engine, gearbox, crown and wheel, sub-assembly etc. to increase productivity.
Besides they also conducted super checking to ensure periodic maintenance that could improve the life of the engines, said the statement.