A fixed tenure of three to four years is needed for the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) for the crisis-ridden Kerala State Road Transport Corporation to come out of the red, outgoing CMD M.P. Dinesh has said.
“One year is a short tenure for the CMD to grasp the realities and make changes. A fixed tenure will help the person overcome these issues and to plan and execute changes,” Mr. Dinesh, who is stepping down from the post of CMD after 16 months, told The Hindu.
The former IPS officer said at the helm of the KSRTC he could usher in rationalisation of schedules overcoming stiff opposition from trade unions and political pressure, reduce the monthly revenue-deficit gap from ₹50 crore to ₹42 crore, and settle long-pending bills of less than ₹1 lakh.
Dead trips avoided
“Rationalisation of schedules is a big achievement. By reducing 500 schedules, we could reduce 1.4 lakh km daily without impacting revenue and commuters. More than 1,000 schedules were rearranged. Dead trips could be avoided on 4,700 km in the ordinary service route and around 48,500 km were saved in the case of fast passenger and super fast services. The crew requirement came down by 1,500 and the collection went up as the schedules were made need-based,” he said.
The KSRTC has approached KIIFB for purchasing 412 buses for ₹128 crore. A switchover to e-buses was being worked out, the CMD said.
Mr. Dinesh described the employees as the “biggest asset” of the KSRTC. The officers in the middle management level were equipped to take up any challenge. “As a person who came from the police force, I had my own style of functioning. I did not have any rift with trade unions.”
Eight-hour duty
Though Mr. Dinesh cited personal reasons for stepping down days after getting extension of one year as CMD, he said the higher-ups had not extended much support. “The ground work was done for bus branding and for the roll-out of the eight-hour duty with overtime. But, it could not take off,” added Mr. Dinesh who would move to Bengaluru after handing over the charge to the new MD, Biju Prabhakar.