Mangaluru : Lack of KSRTC services gives way for private buses

Mangaluru : Lack of KSRTC services gives way for private buses

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Apr 26, 2015: KSRTC -  Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation  complains of   the revenue loss being caused by clandestine operation of private buses, it should be seen that it is due to KSRTC’s  lean services on nationalised routes that gave way for private operators.  Before the government relaxed the ban on contract carriage buses in 2005, hundreds of private taxis and jeeps were ferrying passengers between Mangaluru and the neighbouring towns—Bantwal, Uppinangady and Puttur,  on nationalised routes. Passengers were  jam packed in these cabs with least regard to safety.

The contract carriage buses  caused taxis and jeeps  to come to a full stop on the routes, said a resident of Puttur. If  KSRTC had sufficiently catered to the needs   taxis  nor contract carriages would have existed now, he added. The KSRTC  appears not yet  to have learned a lesson  the proof is the  recent passenger unrest in B.C. Road where KSRTC failed to operate enough buses to Dharmasthala.

Same  is the case with private buses with All India Tourist Omni Bus permits, which operate on the nationalised route between Mangaluru and Bengaluru. Only when these private buses deployed improvised coaches, KSRTC was forced to improve its coaches. Had it been KSRTC’s monopoly, improved  coaches would not have materialised. It seems that  both things have  positive and negative fall out.