With restrictions on travel by various district administrations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC), headquartered in Hubballi, has incurred loss to the tune of over ₹7 cores in 10 days and the losses are likely to mount further as the restrictions are set to remain in force for some more time.
According to information given by Chief Traffic Manager of NWKRTC Santosh Kumar, a total of 2,723 bus schedules have been cancelled between March 11 and 19.
NWKRTC operates buses from nine divisions in six districts of Bombay-Karnataka region and on Friday it cancelled 400 schedules because of the lack of passengers.
Ever since the COVID-19 scare spread, forcing people to scuttle their travel plans and stay indoors, the transport corporation has been cancelling an average of just over 300 buses daily owing to poor patronage.
As per the directions of Managing Director of NWKRTC Rajendra Cholan, the corporation has temporarily cancelled, till further orders, all bus services on the Mumbai and Kalaburagi routes and all buses going to Maharashtra via Vijayapura in the wake of more COVID-19 infections in those regions.
This apart, NWKRTC has cut by half services to Kolhapur, Pune and Goa routes. It has also reduced by 25% the ‘Vegadoot’ services to Bengaluru and other premier segment services to Benglauru by 50 %.
The revenue loss of the corporation is likely to go up in the next week as more schedules are likely to be cancelled in the wake of further clampdown as a precautionary measure.
Meanwhile, the corporation has also taken steps to create awareness on the pandemic and is getting its buses cleaned and sanitised regularly. The bus stations are also cleaned up and sanitised apart from making announcements on the measures needed to prevent the disease.
Meanwhile, because of the ‘Janta Curfew’ call given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Santosh Kumar has said that NWKRTC will operate only a few services and long-distance buses will run after 9 p.m. based on the demand by passengers.
Meanwhile, the Hubballi-Dharwad Bus Rapid Transit System (HD-BRTS) has decided to suspend the ‘Chigari’ buses on the HDBRTS route on Sunday.
However it will operate city transport buses on the mixed lane traffic based on the demand by passengers, a release added.
