Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy speaking in the Legislative Council in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
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To facilitate the Karnataka government’s ambitious Shakti scheme, which offers free bus travel to women domiciled in the State, the government has so far reimbursed ₹7,796 crore to the four State road transport corporations. The government still owes ₹2,182 crore to the corporations, Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy informed the Legislative Council on Wednesday.
Responding to BJP member Keshava Prasad, the Minister said out of the total ₹9,978 allocation for the scheme during 2024-2025, the State had released only ₹7,796 crore to the four corporations — Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), North-Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC), and Kalyana Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (KKRTC) — based on the number of zero-fare tickets issued to women.
The Shakti scheme, introduced on June 11, 2023, is one of the five flagship guarantee schemes rolled out by the Congress government after assuming office. This initiative aims to empower women by enhancing their mobility.
Overall deficit of ₹5,200 crore since 2019
Pointing out that the four RTCs are facing an overall deficit of ₹5,200 crore since 2019, the Minister attributed the losses to the rise in oil prices, revision of employees’ salary, and hike in the cost of spare parts of vehicles.
“It is not just Karnataka RTCs that are facing losses, but all RTCs across India are reeling under losses. However, the Karnataka government has planned multiple programmes and initiatives to tide over these losses and revive these RTCs financially. These losses are one of the reasons for revising the bus fares by 15% recently,” he explained.
The Minister also revealed that out of the existing bus fleet with all the RTCs, only 30% of the buses are operated in profit mode. “About 40% buses are operated under losses and another 30% are operated in no-loss-no-profit mode. We need about ₹10 crore a day to maintain our fleet of buses, including diesel, wages of employees, breakdown, maintenance, and other related expenses. All RTCs operate 1.96 lakh trips on a daily basis,” he said.
Shortage of buses
On complaints of disruption in the frequency of services or availability of buses, the Minister said the shortage of buses was largely due to the non-purchase of new buses by the previous governments. “If they had purchased buses periodically, there would not have been any problem. There has been a shortage of buses owing to the phasing out of old buses on technical grounds. Yet, we have purchased 5,360 buses. Also, no recruitment was done since 2016 despite the retirement of 14,000 staffers. But we have appointed 9,000 staff through direct recruitment and another 1,000 staff on compassionate grounds,” he said.
“We have bus connectivity to 90% of the villages. We have buses running in villages even if there are not enough people travelling. The daily costs have doubled from ₹6 crore to ₹12 crore,” he added.
Published – March 12, 2025 08:51 pm IST
