Govt. is positive on merger of road transport corporations, says KSRTC Chairman

However, no immediate decision will be taken on the matter for now: Chandrappa

Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) Chairman and Holalkere MLA M. Chandrappa has said that the government is positive on the merger of road transport corporations in the State and deliberations are going on.

Responding to queries at a press conference here on Tuesday, Mr. Chandrappa said that a meeting with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is to be held to take the final decision on the merger. However, the final decision might not come before the elections to the Legislative Assembly, he added.

Though the one-man M.R. Sreenivasa Murthy Committee on revival of road transport corporations had rejected the idea of merger, Mr. Chandrappa, with his own experience at the macro level, has found that the merger is feasible.

“Recently, I ordered merger of Mysuru City Transport and Rural Divisions that gave positive results by reducing duplicate expenditure,” he told reporters.

Similarly, the management recently identified over 400 posts at KSRTC Central Office that were unnecessary. After abolishing the posts, personnel holding them were transferred to different vacant posts thereby curbing unnecessary expenditure and enhancing productivity, he said.

The formation of four road transport corporations was necessary at that time as the government had feared trade unionism would ruin the corporation. However, the situation has changed now, Mr. Chandrappa said. The KSRTC Chairman said that the government is yet to take a final decision whether all four corporations — KSRTC, NWKRTC, Kalyana Karnataka RTC and BMTC — should be merged or whether BMTC should be allowed to function as an independent entity.

Mr. Chandrappa said that KSRTC that could not procure new buses post COVID-19 was awaiting the Chief Minister’s nod to induct 650 normal buses, 50 air-conditioned buses and 350 electric buses. The induction should help the corporation augment and fine tune its services.