Half the buses of Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation (RSRTC) are in dilapidated conditions and so is its finances.
The corporation, which has cumulative losses of more than Rs 6,000 crore, has been struggling to disburse salaries to huge workforce of 12,000 staff, who have become accustomed to delayed paychecks.
Sreya Guha, chairman and managing director of RSRTC wants to break the custom of delayed salaries.
“My priority is to pay staff salary every month in time. The corporation is loss making but we have been trying to pay them in time,” Guha said, who is also the additional chief secretary of transport department.
Salaries of employees funded through Green Cess Fund
According to sources, the gap between income and expenditure of roadways is that of salary wage.
“If the state government takes care of salary bill as in any states like Karnataka where staff of corporation are government employees, RSRTC will clock operational breakeven,” said a senior official of RSRTC.
So is RSRTC sending any proposal to state government to absorb corporation staff as government employees?
“No as of now we don't have any plans. The state government is giving as grant from Green Cess fund to pay salaries of staff,” Guha said.
The state government levies tax and surcharge on vehicles as Green Cess in the name of protecting the environment and enhancing public transport services. So far the government has collected Rs 851.3 crore, which is being used to various initiatives, including grants to cover operational losses of Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation and urban bus services.
Roadways to get 1,300 new buses
For successful operation of any transport corporation, replenishment of its fleet is mandatory. Old buses should give way to new ones. But there has been no purchases of buses on last five years in Rodways. The fleet of 3,500 buses is reduced to 2,000 only on ground as 1,500 buses have become redundant.
“We expect to buy 1,300 buses in next two years including 300 electrical buses. With this “reinforcement”, things may improve,” Guha said.
She said that the Roadways need BSVI compliant new buses on Jaipur-Delhi route, which is one of the biggest grossers for roadways.
“All our Volvo and other luxury buses are 7-8 years old. It's the need of hour to replace them. Of the new proposed buses, we will buy right mix of luxury as well as normal buses,” she said.
Sreya Guha launched online grievance services
Among various initiatives, Sreya Guha launched the first ever online grievance services for passengers of Rajasthan Roadways, few days back.
“Every days lakhs of passengers travel on our buses. But there is no way a passenger can register complaint in an authentic ticket manner. We have launched online grievance services on the website. Passengers can lodge their complaints and we will immediately take action,” she said.
Prakash Bhandari is a veteran journalist with over 50 years of experience. He has worked with The Times of India for 30 years and contributed to leading publications as well as international news agency AFP.
