Delay by Jayalalithaa in flagging off 2,000 buses costs govt more than Rs 14 crore

CHENNAI: Unavailability of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa to flag off 2,000 new government buses resulted in a loss of ₹14.23 crore to the government, says a CAG report. Some of these new buses were lying idle for more than one and a half years, according to the report tabled at the assembly on Monday.

This was reported at a time when more than 60 % of government buses were declared over-aged and public were forced to battle with broken seats, footsteps and windows.

Besides this, ageing fleet of state transport corporations had caused more than 6,700 fatal accidents in the last five years.. The report says from 2012 to 2016, the government had procured 4,606 bus chassis from two private suppliers — Ashok Leyland and Tata Motors Limited — through financial assistance was given by TN Transport Development & Finance Corporation Limited (TDFC).

Bus body building on these chassis were carried out either in-house or by outsourcing.

Of this, construction of bus body on 2,020 chassis was completed and they were ready for registration with the local RTO.

But, they were kept idle without any commercial use for more than 90 days, says the report. According to norms, the suppliers allow a credit period of 90 days and interest is recovered from the transport corporations after the end of this period. The report said, “The delay in putting the 2,020 buses on road beyond 90 days led to avoidable interest loss of ₹10.29 crores during the idle period.”

Also, by operating the new fuel-efficient buses the corporations could have reduced fuel cost ₹3.94 crore, it added.

In response, the government said it was a practice of the former CM to flag off all the new buses on a particular day in a grand manner and obtaining the convenient date for flagging ceremony was beyond its administrative control.

The fact, however, remained that these administrative delays have resulted in a loss of ₹14.23 crore. A review of the performance by these corporations suggest that a cumulative loss of ₹19,195 crore was reported in 2016-17. It was around ₹16,100 crore the previous year.