Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government proposes to undertake a massive plan for the revival of the state-owned Odisha State Road Transport Corporation (OSRTC) and the operation of its fleet of buses.
Sources in the know of things said that at a recent high-level meeting, the Transport Department Principal Secretary proposed that the department adopt the wet lease procedure to enhance OSRTC’s fleet size by including private partners in the operations of the corporation.
Currently, OSRTC owns a fleet of around 636 buses, of which 478 are operating on 317 routes. As many as 77 buses are under repair, while 53 buses will be discarded.
The Standing Committee has observed that OSRTC will purchase new buses to increase the number of buses in fleet size to 1,000. Nevertheless, the corporation is incurring operational losses every year. Therefore, OSRTC has been advised to look into the feasibility of roping in private players without adding financial burden on the purchase /maintenance/manpower/fuel.
It is worth mentioning here that the Capital Region Urban Transportation (CRUT) has already adopted the wet lease procedure.
According to the proposals, private partners will bear the maintenance charge, fuel cost and staff payment, as they may have a better management system in the operation of buses. This is likely to help reduce the operational losses of OSRTC buses.
However, the private bus owners’ association has not welcomed the proposals.
