Loss making SRTC awarded…for what?

New Delhi, Mar 26: Nearly defunct due to poor administration and allegations of corruption, the J&K State Road Transport Corporation (JKSRTC) Tuesday received an award in Delhi for its “achievements”.

The Association of State Road Transport Undertakings (ASRTU) New Delhi Tuesday adjudged JKSRTC for the special award for “operating public transport in severe operational conditions”, said an official handout from the J&K government.

Out of the nine State Road Transport Corporations, the award was conferred on JKSRTC at the 63rd annual conference of ASRTU held at New Delhi.
“ASRTU congratulated JKSRTC for the distinguished achievement,” the handout read.

While receiving the award, Managing Director JKSRTC, Bilal Ahmad Bhat, highlighted the “achievements” of JKSRTC.

He, the handout added, said that the Department is going to introduce Heat Ventilated Air Conditioned (HVAC) fleet in the near future. He also said that they are introducing electric vehicles sanctioned under FAME INDIA scheme on different routes in the state.

Interestingly, earlier this month, the J&K government constituted a committee to suggest measures to revive the loss-making SRTC.

The four-member committee, as per an official order, has to “examine and suggest alternate models/options for the revival of JKSRTC to make it economically viable and self-reliant” within a period of three months.

The committee is to be chaired by Administrative Secretary, Finance Department, Arun Kumar Mehta with administrative secretaries, Transport and Planning departments, along with Managing Director SRTC, as its members.

SRTC, which employs over 2000 people, has been running in heavy losses for years now and all the attempts to bring it back on track have, so far, failed.

Noticing its poor performance year-on-year, the erstwhile governments even decided to outsource SRTC on ‘public-private partnership’ mode, a move that never materialised.
Most of the vehicles of the SRTC are lying defunct as authorities over the years have failed to repair them so that they could have been made available for the operations.