Contrary to the recommendations made by the M.R. Sreenivasa Murthy committee, political appointees in the State Road Transport Corporations (RTCs) are now batting for merger of all corporations into a single entity, arguing that the move would help save administrative costs and increase operational efficiency. The committee had recommended against the merger.
There are four State-run road transport corporations: Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC), and Kalyana Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (KKRTC).
M. Chandrappa, chairman, KSRTC, said a unified corporation will serve a greater purpose now. “In the 1990s, then KSRTC, which had jurisdiction over the entire State, was bogged down by repeated strike calls by the unions. In an attempt to weaken the union activities, reorganisations were done on regional lines. But this resulted in more administrative costs in terms of running corporate offices, divisional offices, and others. Operational efficiency has reduced. A merger will help in utilising the fleet size to an optimal level.”
When quizzed on whether a formal request was made to the government, he said the final call will be taken by the Chief Minister. “Most States have a single RTC. Even States bigger than Karnataka, like Uttar Pradesh, have a single RTC. If the four corporations are merged, the unified entity will be called KSRTC, like before the division in 1997,” Mr. Chandrappa said.
After the pandemic, RTCs have been facing financial distress and the merger will help better utilisation of available human resources and other infrastructure, he argued. “For example, in Mysuru, we clubbed rural and urban divisions that helped earn around ₹100 crore per year. At the central office of KSRTC in Shantinagar, there are around 400 employees. The same is the case with other central offices of other corporations. If we merge, 400 staff strength is sufficient for the administration of all the corporations,” Mr. Chandrappa said. However, he admitted that no comprehensive study was done to assess the benefit of merging the corporations.
Merger not necessary: Report
The one-man committee led by retired IAS officer M. R. Sreenivasa Murthy, formed to explore means to revive the RTCs, rejected the idea of merger.
The committee expressed the view that BMTC, NWKRTC, and KKRTC have adequate operational autonomy to manage their affairs and are able to coordinate their work with KSRTC in an atmosphere of friendly cooperation. The committee had made recommendations for setting up a “coordination committee” for rationalisation of services on common routes or overlapping routes, procurement of material, personnel management, and other issues.
The committee also recommended developing a common IT platform for all four RTCs at the earliest. It batted for expert opinion and commuter feedback at the taluk and depot level to increase efficiency.
Towards cutting down administrative and operations costs, it advocated the introduction of an off-board ticketing system to bring down the expenditures on conductors, which will also help in increasing operations by over 50%. For better utilisation of available human resources, the committee recommended restructuring of the existing 12 departments to eight departments.
