The Minister also said that he would explore the possibility
of joining all the local railway routes for local transportation, and relieve
stress on the public transport system to some extent. He said that a consultant
would be appointed to study the feasibility of this project. Dhavalikar, Wednesday morning was grilled by Ruling benches
over the weak finances of KTC and willingness of private bus operators to lend
their buses to government on contract.
“There are several private bus operators who are willing to
give their buses to government on contract provided they are given a subsidy.
Government has not taken any steps in this regard,” BJP MLA Kiran Kandolkar
told the minister. Kandolkar was supported by his colleague Nilesh Cabral.
Dhavalikar initially said that all the bus operators are not
ready to give their buses, especially those running on profitable routes. “We
cannot take few buses and continue to run them on loss making routes,” he said
informing the House that the concessional pass system was stopped following
losses faced by private buses and the demand for additional KTC buses. 45,000
passes had been issued under the concessional pass system.After heated argument, Dhavalikar finally agreed to consider
the proposal, provided the bus owners express their willingness to join in.
