KOCHI: The motor vehicles department (MVD), after months of research and study, submitted a draft transport policy to enhance public transport facility in Kerala. However, it turned out to be an exercise in futility as Transport Minister Antony Raju said he was not aware MVD had taken up such a task.
“No such report has come to my desk. I never instructed the MVD to prepare one. So, the question of considering or approving it does not arise,” Raju said. In the same breath, Raju admitted that Kerala required a transport policy and that public transportation facility needed to be enhanced.
The draft policy, submitted to the transport commissioner’s office in September 2021, suggested forming an integrated system like a land transport authority or road transport authority for operating and monitoring KSRTC and private bus services besides setting up a transport company in the cooperative sector and including private stage carriage operators as shareholders based on value assessment, among other things.
‘MVD prepared it using imagination’
Raju said in the past two years, hundreds of buses, both private and KSRTC, stopped plying due to the Covid-induced financial crisis. “Discussions on preparing a policy report have been on for a while. However, the government did not instruct any department to ready it,” he said, adding, “I think somebody from the MVD took the initiative themselves and readied the policy with their own suggestions.
It is possible the report was prepared using their imagination,” said Raju. Additional transport commissioner Pramoj Sanker P S, who was involved in the preparation of the draft policy, said it was simply a study report based on a survey carried out across the state by a few MVD officials.
“The report had recommendations and suggestions based on the study we held on ways to enhance the public transportation system,” he said The draft policy also said more buses – 18,000 to be exact – were required to meet public demand and enhance public transportation facilities. It also suggested utilising public transport in the tourism sector to its full extent.
Also, as part of setting up ‘Transport Company’, the draft suggested amending the Kerala Motor Transport Workers Welfare Fund (KMTWWF) Act and reconstituting the KMTWWF Board as a nodal agency. “Kerala has fewer than 10,000 operational public buses.
When one bus goes off the road, 10 to 20 private vehicles (cars and scooters) take its place causing congestion. So, a policy to strengthen public transportation is the need of the hour,” said a retired senior deputy transport commissioner.
