Not easy for private operators to match government bus numbers

The government has announced that it is arranging alternative transport services by deploying private operators.

But commuters are set to bear the brunt on Wednesday, as it is not easy to arrange enough vehicles to substitute the government buses.

The four corporations together not only ran 20,000 buses, but operated the vehicles in such a way as to cater to the needs of about 65 lakh people, even in the middle of the pandemic. Finding private players and tuning their services to such efficiency is a Herculean task.

Officials in the transport department said about 50 permits have been issued to run the services, which is too inadequate to fulfill the needs of 65 lakh riders.

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To a question, Transport Commissioner N Shivakumar said he has sent a proposal for waiving of tax and permit fee for a month, to attract more private players in the market.

“As many as 2,750 contract carriage buses and 3,000 stage carriage buses have been surrendered. We had waived the taxes for them, but so far only about 50 permits were issued. In view of the situation, we have told the government to waive the taxes and fees for buses and maxi cabs which come forward to provide services. This will definitely boost the number of vehicles,” he said.

Owners of maxi cabs have to shell out about Rs 2,500 per month as tax and fee, while the amount is much higher for buses. The commissioner said that the government was considering the proposal and may issue a notification in this regard.