Why MP is bringing the state back into road transport
Two decades after the state-owned Madhya Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (MPSRTC) was shut down in 2005, the MP government plans to introduce a bus service in the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode and has set up a transport authority for its regulation. A consultant has been appointed to prepare a report after identifying the routes and the potential income from them. Identification of the routes is likely to be completed for the Indore, Ujjain and Jabalpur divisions, and the service is likely to start in at least two of the divisions by the end of the current financial year.'Almost every state has a transport service that caters to the marginalised communities in remote areas,' said MP transport minister Rao Uday Pratap Singh. 'The service will also connect such remote areas with the bigger towns and cities. The chief minister has been very keen to resume this service, as its absence had compelled financially weaker people to buy bikes on loans, mostly leading to defaults in payment. We hope the service will help the cause of public transport.'advertisementThe service operators will be private entities, with the government just being the regulator. The transport authority will fix the fares and allot the routes. Operators will have to pick up less profitable routes along with profitable ones, as part of a responsibility—much like airlines being allotted non-profitable sectors along with profitable ones.The state presently has private buses plying on routes allotted to them. By the time it was shut down in 2005, the MPSRTC had been running on losses for close to a decade, with an accumulated loss of more than Rs 750 crore. Its fleet strength at its peak was around 2,700 buses, of which only around 850 were operational when it was shut down. The number of employees, however, remained the same—with the bus-to-employee ratio at a high of 1:11—adding to losses.advertisement
Another big reason for the losses was government interference in running the service and allotment of routes, besides recruitment of staff way above requirement.Subscribe to India Today Magazine
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