3 Juy, 2010

There are no easy ways out for the Kadamba Transport Corporation (KTC), Goa’s state-owned transport service, which is mired deeply in the red. The KTC’s new chairperson, Priol MGP MLA Deepak Dhavalikar, has come up with a slew of proposals that he says will pull up the beleaguered corporation by the bootstraps. The new boss seems to have done his homework. His analysis of the corporation’s finances reveals that on average, the KTC earns Rs18 per kilometre, but spends Rs30 per kilometre every day, giving a stupendous loss of Rs12 per kilometre per day. This means that the corporation recovers only 60 per cent of its costs through its revenues.
This is bad, but not awful. A study done in 2004 by two researchers from Rutgers University of New Jersey in the USA jointly with an officer of the Indian Railways reveals that bus transport systems in most large cities in India cover about 70 to 90 per cent of their operating costs. The KTC does better than Kolkata’s bus transport system, for example, which covers only 42 per cent of its costs through passenger fares. However Delhi (72 per cent), Mumbai (80 per cent) and Hyderabad (92 per cent) do much better. Bangalore is India’s only metropolitan bus transport system that is actually profitable (105 per cent).
It is clear, therefore, that passenger bus transport operations, for the most part, do not break even. This is something that the Goa government needs to recognise. Like it or not, it is going to have to subsidise the KTC to some extent.
Meanwhile, however, let us see the secrets of those bus services that do well. Mumbai’s BEST not only runs a transport service but also provides electricity to most of South Mumbai. The profits from the electricity distribution operations not only subsidise the bus service, but leave a small surplus. As far as both Hyderabad and Bangalore are concerned, their corporations contract bus services to private companies (mostly IT outfits) at attractive commercial hire rates, accounting for their better overall performance.
Mr Dhavalikar would do well to study the more successful transport systems in other parts of the country before he comes up with ‘solutions’ for Kadamba’s plight. Some of the measures he has suggested make eminent sense, especially centralising the spares operations, but others do not. Neither buying ticket vending machines for the buses nor introducing an extra stop for the non-stop shuttles is going to yield anything significant. The former, in fact, will only make a bigger hole in the corporation’s coffers.
Kadamba’s basic problem is inefficiency and corruption. Its bus depots are prime real estate, but the income from renting shops is pathetically small. There have been innumerable allegations of KTC officers operating spare parts rackets. Some have even been caught, but have escaped punishment. Conductors are known to give passengers a ‘concession’ if they don’t insist on tickets. KTC buses are invariably scheduled so that they leave just after private buses running on the same route, so that the latter get to pick up all the passengers at the stops. Private bus owners demand fare hikes but don’t implement the raised fares, effectively making KTC buses more expensive than their competitors.
While some leakage takes place at lower levels, most of it comes from people in responsible positions. This cannot be allowed to continue. KTC needs a spring cleaning. The ring leaders of these rackets have to be caught and punished.
But, even if all the leaks are plugged, the KTC is unlikely to break even. No matter; at least it can come up to the operating levels of New Delhi or Mumbai. Some more revenue can be generated by emulating the Hyderabad and Bangalore corporations. Realistically, though, the government is going to have to come up with the rest.