“Safe to eat’ tagged vegetables, fish, meat, milk and food products will be made available in the ‘shops on wheels” to come up soon in the depots of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) across the State.
Commuters alighting from the KSRTC buses after a day’s work need not have step into shops outside the bus stations and depots for shopping as quality food products from government, cooperative and public sector units will be available in these “shops on wheels’ to be parked in depot premises at vantage points and accessible to outsiders.
Initially, vegetables from Horticorp, meat products from Meat Products of India, chicken and poultry products from Kerala State Poultry Development Corporation, fish from Matsyafed, milk and diary products from Milma, Kudumbashree products and forest produce such as honey marketed by the Forest Department will be available at these outlets. Even quality tea and snacks can be made available in these outlets for the travelling public.
The KSRTC is planning to convert the de-commissioned buses lying in the 92 depots across the State into “shop on wheels” and to lease them to entrepreneurs coming forward to run the venture, says Managing Director of KSRTC Biju Prabhakar.
Besides promoting the concept, the idea is to generate revenue from outside the fleet for the cash-strapped undertaking. The initiative comes in the wake of the shopping complexes in the KSRTC depots turning a liability to the undertaking. The KSRTC was also facing hurdles in disposing of buses which has completed the life.
Initially, the plan is to make available 150 buses for the new inititiative. The depots in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode will see the ‘shops on wheels’ first. The number of shops on wheels and depots will be decided based on various factors. At East Fort, it has been found that it can park seven buses facing the M.G. Road.
The corporation is awaiting the nod from the Motor Vehicles Department for its application to convert the buses into ‘shop on wheels’, says the Managing Director.