The problems of the Odisha State Road Transport Corporation (OSRTC) due to the burdens of overstaffing and loss making seem to have lessened as was discussed at a high-level meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi at the State Secretariat here on Tuesday.
ORSTC MD Sudhansu Sadangi presented the updates and the corporation’s revival. Satisfied over the current trend of revival and profit, the meeting decided to provide capital investment support to the OSRTC for purchase of new buses.
Padhi directed the corporation to adopt more professional methods of management and operation and scale up real profit.
It was decided that in the first phase, around 70 AC and non-AC buses would be procured at an investment of Rs33 crore. The OSRTC would spend around Rs13 crore from its own resources and Rs20 crore would be provided as capital support from the Government through the Department of Commerce & Transport.
The Chief Secretary wanted that all new buses should be of better quality from the perspectives of security and comfort of the passengers.
Sadangi said, “E-ticketing machines have been installed and manual ticketing has been abolished. Internet/mobile ticketing has been introduced. As of now, 60 per cent of the tickets are being booked online in advance. This has curtailed the pilferage. The system of Bhuan for collection of entry fee to the Badambadi bus-stand has been removed. In its place, a new system of entry fees through smart card and boom barrier has been made functional.”
He further informed that the OSRTC has a target to start premium bus service from October 25. A one-bus-one staff policy would be adopted for all future buses. The system of central store has been substituted by a virtual store through IDCOl software. The corporation has successfully downsized the bus-staff ratio to the lowest level in comparison to the Road Transport Corporations of other States. The ratio has been reduced to 3 in 2015-16 in contrast to 9+ in 1993-94. The per-km operating cost has also been reduced to Rs26.41 against the all-India average of Rs34.30. The corporation has earned a net surplus over last 13 years.
Commerce & Transport Principal Secretary Sanjaya Rastogi, Public Enterprise Principal Secretary Vijay Arora, Commerce & Transport Special Secretary Manoj Kumar Mishra and Planning & Convergence Special Secretary GB Reddy participated in the discussions.