Kolhapur municipal transport body to procure 9 new buses

KOLHAPUR: The Kolhapur Municipal Transport (KMT) is going to add nine new buses to its active fleet.
Funds of Rs 3.81 crore will be made available for buying diesel-run air-conditioned buses through district planning and development council as well as MLA development funds.
The KMT, which is a transport undertaking of the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC), currently has a fleet of 125 buses, of which, 79 are plying on roads, 30 are defunct and the remaining are for spare. They are brought to use when any of the on-road buses break down. All 30 defunct buses will be scrapped in the next few months. Usually, these buses are moved for scrapping once they complete 15 years of service, however, some defunct buses are the ones which were bought merely eight years ago through the central government funds. The initial order of 105 buses manufactured by Ashok Leyland company were cut down to 75.
A senior KMT official, requesting anonymity, said, “Most defunct buses are the old ones while a very few of them are new. They are marked for scrapping only if they do not yield the expected revenue. Such buses have high maintenance cost due to frequent breakdowns and low mileage. Besides, they also add to air pollution. New buses, on the other hand, are cost efficient and also helps attract passengers.”