18 transport undertakings to be amalgamated

By S. Vydhianathan

CHENNAI, SEPT. 12. With a view to streamlining administration and reducing administrative overheads and wasteful expenditure, the Government has decided to amalgamate 18 State transport undertakings (STU), other than the MTC, into six corporations.

The new corporations will have their headquarters in Chennai, Villupuram, Kumbakonam, Salem, Coimbatore and Madurai, according to the Transport Minister, Mr. Nainar Nagenthran.

Presenting the demands for his Ministry in the Assembly today, the Minister said the amalgamation had become imperative to avoid `unhealthy and wasteful' competition among the STUs and also to improve their finances.

Describing the financial status of the majority of the STUs as ``grave'', the Minister said they had fallen into a debt trap and no financial institution was prepared to extend them loans.

While the cumulative loss upto March this year was Rs. 2035.02 crores, loan and overdraft outstandings were to the tune of Rs. 1024 crores. The heavy outstanding led to a high interest commitment of Rs. 158.32 crores per annum. This the STUs were not able to pay fuel and spares suppliers and meet other statutory commitments in time.

The dire financial position made it impossible to replace old buses in time. The number of overaged buses with the STUs as on June 30 this year was 6,662, accounting nearly for 33 per cent of the total fleet strength. Despite the financial constraint, the Government planned to introduce 1,550 new buses in the current year as replacements.

Referring to mini buses introduced by the previous regime, the Minister said though the scheme was meant for unserved rural areas, they were running mostly on served routes exceeding the permissible length of 4 km and cutting into the revenue of the corporations, which sustained a loss estimated to be around Rs. 4 crores per month.

After a detailed analysis, steps would be taken to modify the scheme so that it would help commuters in rural areas without affecting the STU operations.

Expressing concern over the increasing accident rate on the highways, the Minister said the Government would prepare an action plan on road safety with definite targets to be implemented within this year.

Already a transport commissioner was nominated as the Road Safety Commissioner for coordination among different departments/agencies directly and indirectly involved in road safety programmes and also to monitor field level activities and advise the Government on policies to be evolved on road safety.

It was programmed to station one ambulance at every 50 km on accident-prone highways to transport the injured in accidents to the nearest hospital.

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Section  : Southern States
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