Date:15/08/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/08/15/stories/2007081561511000.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Karnataka to sign pacts on inter-State bus services soon

S. Rajendran

The four State corporations have nearly 17,000 buses
Plan to raise
fleet strength
to 20,000

Bangalore: The Karnataka Government will soon enter into an understanding on inter-State bus operations with all the southern States and Maharashtra. With this, there will be a major increase in the size of the fleet over the next six months.

The understanding with Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh was signed nearly a decade ago, and successive governments refrained from revising the agreements.

The need to revise the understanding was finalised last month when the Transport Ministers of the southern States met in Thiruvananthapuram on July 5 and 6 to arrive at a consensus on various issues.

Minister for Transport N. Cheluvaraya Swamy, who held a meeting with Transport Minister of Andhra Pradesh K. Lakshminarayana here on Friday, told The Hindu that the agreement with the States related to the number of kilometres that government buses of one State could operate in the territory of another and was not limited to the number of buses that could ply in the other State’s jurisdiction. Further, there was no restriction on the routes on which they could operate in another State.

The competition would be in running buses between two important cities or towns and on national highways.

Karnataka will sign the first of the inter-State agreements with Andhra Pradesh, which has a big fleet of government buses. While the four bus corporations of the State command a fleet strength of nearly 17,000 buses, Andhra Pradesh has a little over 18,000 buses.

With Karnataka placing a big order for buses, the fleet strength is expected to increase to 20,000 buses by the end of the financial year and according to Mr. Cheluvaraya Swamy, the State’s aim is to have the highest number of buses. Barring one corporation, the others are making profit and the Government also owns the highest number of Volvo buses which operate on many inter-State routes.

As per the existing understanding with Andhra Pradesh, both States can run up to 1.3 lakh km a day in each other’s territory. The proposal now is to increase it by 90,294 km (a total of 2.20 lakh km) and the number of buses from 911 to 1,359. With Tamil Nadu, the proposal is to increase the kilometres covered from 44,293 to 71,062 and the number of buses from 221 to 521. With Maharashtra, the proposal is to raise the distance to 1.75 lakh km from 1.13 lakh km and the number of buses from 812 to 1,163.