In a report delivered to the transport minister, the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) asserted that it had run extra services to handle the holiday traffic over the Christmas and New Year period. Yes, it is true on paper. However, it appears that reality is very different from the claim.
The KSRTC officials who submitted a report with falsified data tricked the transport minister into saying that more buses would run throughout the Christmas and New Year period.
However, despite sending out more buses, the staff failed to take into consideration the overall distance travelled and the decline in revenue in their attempt to pull off a slick number.
On December 20, only 4,016 buses were in operation, travelling 13.51 lakh kilometres while transporting 20.31 lakh people.
On December 21, despite running 324 more buses than the day before, fewer kilometres were travelled overall. While 4,319 buses travelled 13.65 lakh kilometres on December 23, 4,292 buses travelled 14.06 lakh kilometres on December 24.
The statistics show that even though it was stated that there would be more buses operating, the customers did not wait for those ‘extra’ services. KSRTC was relied upon by 20.71 lakh passengers on December 5, 21.13 lakh passengers on December 12, and 20.79 lakh passengers on December 19.
According to the data, KSRTC didn’t even reach their typical number of passengers on December 22, when the Christmas rush was at its worst. Only 20,36 lakh were there.
On Christmas Eve, fewer people travelled by KSRTC than usual—19.80 lakh passengers—a further decline from the average.
The Swift buses are also in decline; they were created as a means of rescuing KSRTC from the current problem.
The 4,000 KSRTC buses create Rs 55 on average per km in income, including regular services; however, the Swift buses that were added to the fleet only produce Rs 50 per km.
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