BENGALURU: The Karnataka Road Transport Corporation’s (KSRTC) traffic revenue has broken all its previous records, earning Rs 3,349 crore in 2022. The highest traffic revenue was before the pandemic at Rs 3,182 crore in 2019. The bus corporation has reduced its loss percentage from Rs 157 crore in 2019 to Rs 93 crore in 2022.
KSRTC Managing Director Anbu Kumar said the total traffic revenue was Rs 2,738 crore in 2016, Rs 2,975 crore in 2017, Rs 3,131 crore in 2018 and Rs 3,182 crore in 2019. “Due to Covid, the bus corporation’s services were hit and its traffic revenue slumped to Rs 1,569 crore which again jumped to Rs 2,037 crore in 2021. In 2022-23, the revenue touched a new high with Rs 3,349 crore. We achieved it without any ticket fare revision and 10 per cent reduction in the fleet size due to phasing out of old vehicles,” he explained.
Clarifying why the KSRTC was making losses despite improved traffic revenue, Kumar said, “Around 35 per cent of our schedules have less than 50 per cent load factor (number of seats filled), especially in rural areas and during non-peak hours. For us to reach the break-even point, the load factor should always be above 70 per cent.”
“Even if there are just 5 or 10 passengers it is our obligation to serve them and we cannot cancel trips like private operators. People in rural and remote areas like Madikeri, Hassan and other regions solely rely on our buses and we cannot look at the operations just from the profit point of view. We offer passes to students at concessional rates. This is where the bus corporation is making losses,” he added.
He said they are exploring all options to boost revenue and are rationalising the routes and exploring new destinations. They have cut down the pilferage of revenue.