THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Women and transgender passengers undertook nearly 15 crore trips – 13.04 lakh a day – on KSRTC’s ordinary buses under the Priyadarshini free travel scheme in the last 115 days. Going by the female population in the state, this works out to roughly eight free trips for every woman and girl and marks a 101% jump in ridership.
Presenting the data in the assembly session that concluded on Thursday, Transport Minister C P John reitrated the surge had not affected private bus revenue, a claim contested by the latter’s operators who have now decided to go ahead with their indefinite strike from November 3.
John said the number of trips by women and transgender passengers on an average day now equals about 7% of the state’s female population and is double the pre-scheme level of about 3.5%.
As per the data, women and transgender commuters now make up over 60% of ordinary bus passengers, pushing total daily traffic across all KSRTC services beyond 27 lakh commuters.
However, the rush has put a severe strain on the state’s transport infrastructure. Out of a registered fleet of 5,765 buses, KSRTC has just 4,468 active vehicles to cover 4,663 daily schedules. Daily commuting relies heavily on 2,617 ordinary buses out of a total ordinary fleet of 3,125, leaving little cushion for peak-hour demand.
Private buses, meanwhile, have reported a sharp fall in daily passengers. Industry representatives claimed that over 500 private buses have stopped operating in the past month due to unsustainable losses.
“The scheme has resulted in huge loss of patronage of women who constituted most of our passengers. The measures recommended by the government have been insufficient,” said Hamsa Erikunnan, general secretary, Kerala State Bus Operators Federation.
However, a member of the high-level expert committee, which was appointed to evaluate the private bus sector and which concluded that Priyadarshini did not impact private bus services, said it was inaccurate to ascribe everything wrong with the private bus sector to the scheme.
“Our study showed the scheme resulted in improved use of public transport. Our recommendations in granting MSME status and schedule rationalisation will help private bus operators to stay in business,” said the member.
