JNNURM buses for inter-district services: Aryadan

Thiruvananthapuram: In a supporting note to Kerala State Road Transport Corporation’s plan to press low-floor air-conditioned buses into inter-district services, Aryadan Muhammed, the minister of transportation said that the buses under JNNURM scheme could be used for inter-district services.

The aim for transferring the modern buses to state government, under JNNURM scheme that has been funded by the centre government, was to use it in a new system for transportation in urban areas. KSRTC in the state is entrusted with the responsibility of using the services in urban areas.

KSRTC got a total of 320 buses in fleet to run the service .There are 26 air conditioned buses and 130 non-air-conditioned buses are now running service in Thiruvananthapuram. As many as 48 air-conditioned buses and 120 non air conditioned buses are based in Kochi.

The centre has given four more buses to Thiruvananthapuram under the scheme. KSRTC has decided to roll out two of them into the long route inter-district services. However, the decision had to encounter with protests from mayor, K.Chandrika, of the city. The mayor said that the centre has allotted such buses for operating within the city limits.

The minister held that the decision to extend low-floor services to other districts was taken by the urban development department and transportation department, to minimise the loss in the service. The government is not in a situation to agree with the demand of the city corporation as the low-floor services are already running on loss, he added.

Source: Malayala Manorama