The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has made it clear to the government that it will be able to operate inter-district services adhering to physical-distancing norms only if the bus fare is hiked.
The KSRTC has suffered heavy loss while operating intra-district ordinary services even after the minimum fare was raised by 50% and the fare per subsequent km from 70 paise to ₹1.10 to offset the loss incurred due to COVID-19 protocols.
“Normally, fast passengers ply on inter-district routes and their fare should be hiked by 50%. The minimum fare should go up from the present ₹11 to ₹17,” a top KSRTC official told The Hindu. The KSRTC has also demanded doubling of the deluxe service fare, based on the evaluation of ordinary services from May 20. “We are awaiting the reply of the government,” he said.
Low occupancy
The ordinary services operated from 94 depots in the State had an occupancy of 10 to 20 on an average per bus. Officials said figures showed that for every 1 km there was only one passenger.
The KSRTC, which used to ferry 28 lakh passengers daily, carried only three lakh passengers in intra-district services a day. The kilometres covered by its fleet came down from 16.5 lakh to 3 lakh due to restrictions like night curfew, inter-district, and inter-State travel.
“Our assumption that we will incur a loss of ₹11.65 per km by enforcing the physical-distancing norms has been proved right. The revenue from the ordinary services was sufficient only for purchasing high-speed diesel,” he said.
On May 28, the KSRTC’s revenue from the fleet was 82,11,803 from 4,03,876 passengers, with earning per km coming to ₹26.86 and earning per bus, ₹4,722.
The KSRTC had initially demanded that the fare be hiked in such a manner that it would earn ₹60.35 a km. But, the proposal was turned down. If the fare is not hiked by 50% for inter-district services, the corporation would land in further economic crisis, the official said.
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