It is good to hear that the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has rolled out its first electric bus making Kerala the sixth Indian state to run the service. KSRTC will carry out a trial run for 15 days out of which 8 days will be in Thiruvananthapuram and 7 days in Ernakulam, following which it will conduct services in Kochi and Kozhikode. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that if the services are successful, they will roll out around 300 electric buses for service throughout the state.
However, people have genuine doubts about purchase of electric buses as each bus costs around 2.25 crore ruppees and total costs for 300 buses will be 675 crores. How is it possible for the cash crunchy KSRTC to spend immediately this much amount? If it is a term loan, would it be possible for KSRTC to repay back loan timely? KSRTC is already in a debt trap and there is no proper repayment. The oil companies are always in war path with for non- payment of cost of fuel that they had supplied to KSRTC.
The insiders of KSRTC keep a view that the very reason for KSRTC loss-making is the uncontrolled purchase of spares such as window panes, tyres to small small buses (now none runs) etc. which are still kept unused in various garages. The commission to higher-ups is the attraction for those thoughtless purchases.
Here in this case also the commission for 300 electric buses is not small and to whose packets it would go, is a significant question. The tailor-made gentleman MD of KSRTC, of course, knows about the commission for bus purchase.
The labour unions including persioners are silent as they now get salary and pension regularly. Once this payment breaks they will start enquiring about the purchase of electric buses. So, it is better for union leaders to have look into the new launch as it may sometimes affect the job security of them.
Is electric bus a mean to the sustainable development concept of Kerala? Only time could say about it.
K A Solaman
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