The Transport Department has issued a draft notification on the ‘New Comprehensive Area Scheme for the entire State of Karnataka’, which will enable State transport undertakings (STUs) such as the KSRTC to have monopoly over passenger road transport services.

This is the second time the department is issuing a draft notification on this. In December 2016, it issued a draft notification that ended up facing legal hurdles.

“The new comprehensive area scheme aims to provide good public transport in the State. The previously issued draft notification had some technical flaws which were challenged before the High Court of Karnataka. Later, the notification was withdrawn and now a fresh draft notification has been issued seeking objections and suggestions,” said B. Basavaraaju, Principal Secretary to the department.

The draft notification states that the right to operate any class of services in the State and to increase the trips and vehicles as and when required in the interest of the public would be “vested exclusively with the State transport undertakings”.

Mr. Basavaraaju said that in future, only STUs such as Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, North Eastern Karnataka Road Transport Corporation, North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation, and Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation would have a monopoly over operating stage carriage services (mofussil, city, town services, and urban transport services). However, private operators issued permit to operate stage carriage services till 2014 will be allowed to continue operations.

“The Transport Department had issued 7,000 stage carriage permits to private operators in the State till 2014, and they will be allowed to continue their operations,” said an official working in the department. “At present, there are several districts, including the coastal districts, Kolar, Shivamogga, and Chickballapur, where private operators dominate. Once the new scheme is implemented, the STUs can operate bus services at their discretion or depending on public demand.”

It is unlikely, however, that the second version of the draft notification will go unchallenged. “There are many flaws in the proposed scheme and we are going to file objections before the authority,” said Sadananda Chatra, general secretary, Karnataka Private Bus Owners’ Operators. “In many States across the country, the government is encouraging private parties to operate bus services as STUs lacks the competency to meet the public demand and are incurring huge losses. More than 2,000 private operators in the State and 40,000 people directly employed will suffer because of the new scheme.”

The notification states that objections and suggestions may be addressed to the Principal Secretary to the Government, Transport Department, government of Karnataka.