Vijayapura: After nearly six months the various State Road Transport Corporation’s bus services have resumed to all the cities of neighboring state Maharashtra.
Since the employees of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) had gone on strike demanding the Maharashtra government to merge the various transport corporations with the state government – all the buses services of neighbouring states including Karnataka buses were restricted from operating in the cities of Maharashtra from the past six months. Many employees of MSRTC have returned to work and as the matter is being heard in Bombay High Court – the bus services have been resumed in most of the cities of Maharashtra. Even Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and other transport corporations’ buses have been allowed to operate in full strength in all the cities of the neighbouring state from the past two weeks.
This has come as a huge relief to the state transport corporations as the buses that operate to popular cities of Maharashtra grosses huge revenue.
The North Eastern Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (NEKRTC) of Vijayapura division used to operate over 120 buses to various cities, towns and rural areas of Maharashtra before the outbreak of Covid – 19. Now, the NEKRTC is operating 115 buses to neighbouring states. It is for the first time in the last two years the buses are being operated almost in full strength to Maharashtra.
Chandrashekar Phulekar, District Controller of NEKRTC Vijayapura, said that, “We have resumed the bus services to all the cities of Maharashtra. At present the buses are being operated in loss as the people are still hesitating to use public transport in neighbouring states. However, we are running the buses in all the previous routes including in rural areas of Maharashtra.”
“We heaved a sigh of relief because the state buses that operate in Maharashtra gross good revenue. This will reduce the loss of transport corporations. We are hoping that the occupancy will pick up in state operated buses in the neighbouring state,” added Phulekar.
