Operation of five inter-State luxury buses results in monthly loss of ₹13 lakh

The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation’s (KSRTC) wet-leasing of multi-axle buses from Swedish automobile giant Scania has resulted in heavy loss.

Launched with much fanfare in November to take on the inter-State private bus operators who were charging exorbitant rates, the five buses, on the Thiruvananthapuram-Bengaluru and Mookambika sector and back, are incurring a monthly loss of ₹13 lakh on an average. Four daily services are operated to Bengaluru.

In November, the loss suffered by the KSRTC on account of these services was ₹21.50 lakh. In the subsequent months, it was ₹8 lakh and above. The cash-strapped utility carried out an internal study on the wet-leasing of the buses after the five services yielded, on an average, revenue of only ₹46 per km, against the target of ₹52 per km.

As per the arrangement, along with the multi-axle brand new bus, Scania has to provide the driver and maintain the vehicle.

The KSRTC will have to deploy the conductor and provide high-speed diesel.

The KSRTC is paying ₹51.05 lakh per month as rent, ₹54.84 lakh for diesel for the five buses and ₹4.22 lakh as salary for the drivers.

Although the KSRTC director board had approved the wet-lease of 20 Scania buses, the utility took only five into service under the three-year agreement.

Run under the brand Garuda Maharaja, the KSRTC is paying a rent of ₹30.24 per km for 600 to 649 km that the buses ply, ₹27.72 per km for 650 to 699 km, ₹26.60 per km for 700 to 749 km, ₹24.95 per km for 750 to 799 km, and ₹23.82 per km for 800 km and above. Sources said the KSRTC has decided not to go for wet-leasing of the remaining 15 multi-axle buses.

Intention

The wet-lease is part of the KSRTC’s plans to bring down the employee-bus ratio from 8.5 to the national average of 5.5, to dispense with separate categories of drivers and conductors and to increase daily collection from the fleet to ₹8 crore as mooted by Sushil Khanna committee under the utility’s turnaround strategy.