NWKRTC’s finances stay in the rut even after lifting of lockdown

Hubballi: The lifting of the lockdown, along with the easing of restrictions in inter-district and inter-state travel, has done little to lift the North West Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) out of the slump that the Covid-19 crisis plunged it into right at the start of the current fiscal year. Persistent fears among the public of the transmission of the novel coronavirus has kept ridership on NWKRTC buses dismally low resulting in the state-run corporation incurring enormous losses.
That on August 21 – the eve of Ganesha Chaturthi – NWKRTC's rural division operated a meagre 190 buses, against the 418 that the wing had on the roads on any given day prior to March 24, illustrates the magnitude of its problem.
Sources in NWKRTC said that they had deployed more buses hoping to see a spurt in ridership in the run-up to and during the Gowri-Ganesha festive season last week. However, most of the additional buses returned to their respective depots after passengers after waiting for a few hours failed to turn up at the terminals.
NWKRTC’s Hubballi rural division controller H Ramanagoudar told TOI, “Last year, we had to operate 80 more buses to accommodate the crowd during the festive season. This year, what we got was nothing but disappointment.”
He said that the division’s daily income had plummeted from an average Rs 52-55 lakh to Rs 15.5 lakh. “Where 1.35 lakh passengers travelled by our buses before, now it is only around 35,000,” said Ramanagoudar, who however expressed hope of an upswing in fortunes soon.
A senior NWKRTC officer said that, overall, the state-run transport agency earned roughly Rs 5 crore per day before the Covid-19 crisis, whereas the corresponding figure had dropped to Rs 1.5 crore now. “Against 4,660 buses per day, we are operating only 2,680 now,” he said.
NWKRTC managing director Krishna Bajpai was not available for comment.