Lack of patronage, unviable routes put transport dept in red

Transport officials said that the state transport operates around 23,000 Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) buses, including 1,087 State Express Transport Corporation buses. However, the revenue generated from the buses is on a steady decline, as around 25,000 commuters are unwilling to commute by them on a daily basis. This is mainly due to the fact that officials have failed to inspect and identify proper routes to earn revenue while such routes are now dominated by private omni buses. 

Between 2010-11, buses were being operated for a distance of 87 lakh km across the state. While the distance was increased to to 94 lakh km in recent years, the department faced severe losses and sources claimed that it is because of the fact that officials had wrongly chosen routes, and also attributed it to poor patronage. 

“Going by the current scenario, the department seems to prefer omni buses to government buses in lucrative routes. Has anyone heard about omni buses facing revenue losses? If this situation continues, there is a high possibility that the government might privatise the transport sector,” an official, on conditions of anonymity, said. 

The department is yet to recruit technicians for maintenance works. “There should be 125 technicians for 100 state mofussil buses (1.25 technician per bus). However, the current data shows that there are only 65 technicians to take care of 100 buses (0.65 technician per bus). Officials have not recruited technicians for a long time,” said A Soundararajan, president, Tamil Nadu State Transport Employees Federation. K Natarajan, convener, Labour Progressive Federation (LPF), said, “If the transport department fails to take appropriate steps to increase revenue, it will lose more passengers in the coming days leading to a whopping loss.” He added that other cities like Bengaluru are earning more income and Tamil Nadu should take a cue from them. Moreover, there should an expert committee formed to improve the state of affairs. 

Seeking anonymity, a senior official of SETC said, “We are operating buses on proper routes where there is high patronage. Sometimes, the department faces losses due to various reasons. But, we cannot firmly say that SETC is facing loss of revenue on a regular basis.”