Mangaluru, March 30: In a RTA meeting chaired by deputy commissioner A B Ibrahim at DC’s office here on Monday March 30th, discussions were carried on regarding granting new permits to the KSRTC to run buses in various routes in the city. Earlier the KSRTC had sought for new permits to run buses on 35 routes in the city, but encountered opposition from private bus operators’ association.
Addressing the meeting, Dr Sharanappa, superintendent of police, Dakshina Kannada said lot of applications are placed seeking new permits. Lot of permits have been already issued, but the operators have not assigned buses on routes specified in the permits. Hence, before placing request for new permits, the applicants have to keep in mind facts like time gap between buses, capacity of passengers, and possibility to reduce complications and inconvenience to public, he said.
DC A B Ibrahim said, once the permit is granted, the buses have to be run only in the specific routes. Lot of complaints were received from public that operators take permits, but do not run buses. Hence all these factors have to be taken into consideration before placing request for permit.
On behalf of KSRTC, advocate Rakesh Shetty said, Mangaluru citizens should also be allowed to avail the benefits of KSRTC which is the number one transport corporation in India. Hence we are placing request for 35 permits to run buses in Mangaluru city. According to the notification of 1967 under Mysuru scheme, Bangaluru scheme and Mangaluru scheme some routes are reserved exclusively for KSRTC. KSRTC runs buses with the intention of to provide good service to the public. KSRTC charges concession rate bus fares to students, handicapped, senior citizen and journalists, he explained.
Opposing the proposal, an advocate representing bus operators’ association said, main objective of JnNURM was to fill the space where there were no buses. Mangaluru scheme of 1967 is not applicable to city buses as in the cases of Bengaluru and Mysuru. So there is no question of exclusive routes for KSRTC in Mangaluru. Already 28 permits have been given to KSRTC but yet they have not run buses in all the routes. Let buses be assigned first for those routes.
President of Nagarika Hitarakshana Vedike, Hanumanth Kamath said that the notifications were given in 1992, and now the population has doubled. NURM scheme is not only for buses but also for the development of roads. But NURM scheme should be only used for buses since different funds are available for road development, and urged that permits be granted to the limited bus routes.
DC who listened their arguments, invited public to suggest KSRTC and RTO so as to where the buses need to be run. He also directed the KSRTC to apply for 25 new routes out of the 35 routes requested. Many route extension requests were accepted whereas a few were rejected keeping public interest in mind.
During the meeting, RTO Afzal Ahmed Khan, ACP (traffic) Udaya Nayak, members from various bus associations, members of NGOs and others were present.
Next meeting is scheduled on April 20th.
