BENGALURU: The Shakti scheme may have brought smiles to millions of women crisscrossing Karnataka for free, but behind the scenes, the state’s transport system is buckling under the weight of its own success.
Thanks to the scheme, a whopping 25 lakh additional passengers are hopping on to buses every day. That adds up to over 900 crore additional passengers annually -- a tidal wave of travellers riding Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation’s overstretched, ageing fleet.
Almost two years of Shakti, and the wear and tear is showing. Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy laid bare the numbers: Karnataka currently runs around 26,000 buses, but 10 per cent needs to be replaced annually. Besides, under the previous BJP government’s tenure of three years and ten months, no new buses were added. Instead, the fleet shrank to around 21,000.
Initially, the government toyed with the idea of renting buses to plug the gap, but Reddy reportedly urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to buy new buses. This was listed in the recent budget, and Karnataka is now shopping for 4,000 buses.
With the cabinet to convene on Friday morning after Congress leaders return from Ahmedabad, it will have to make a big-ticket decision: Administrative approval for 4,000 buses, costing Rs 2,000 crore at Rs 50 lakh per bus. There is also an urgency, with reports from across the state, especially North Karnataka, painting a grim picture of buses breaking down, commuters crammed like sardines, and fleets gasping for maintenance.
In areas like Belagavi and Kalyana Karnataka, NWKRTC and KKRTC hold a virtual monopoly, with few or no private operators to absorb the pressure. These regions are first in line for reinforcements. Here’s how the 4,000 new buses will be split: 700 for Belagavi region, 700 for Kalyana Karnataka and 600 for the southern districts. By contrast, the southern belt has a cushion — a mix of private players and interstate operators from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, sharing the load and easing the wear and tear.
For now, the spotlight is on Friday’s cabinet meeting, and whether it will greenlight the Rs 2,000 crore proposal to revive KSRTC and its various divisions.