The fleet strength of State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) has fallen almost by half in last two decades and half. From 1621 vehicles, including 486 trucks during the early days of 1990, the fleet has dwindle to bare 833 vehicles including 305 trucks and hardly 523 buses besides a few light vehicles for staff. Though nearly 150 buses were provided by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Development Department for Jammu and Srinagar cities during 2010 but these were also added to the fleet of SRTC, but its financial health could not be improved much.
SRTC has always been a white elephant. Never did it show any sign of self sufficiency leave aside showing profits. The ills of the department are deep set and nobody has ever tried or succeeded in removing the ills and making it a profitable enterprise. The Corporation is embedded in corruption, pilferage, mismanagement and Government apathy. The Central Government supplied 150 buses for augmenting transport in two capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu. But the authorities in Transport Department diverted those buses to inter-state transport sector leaving the two cities to their fate. The Department has about 2500 employees and the bankruptcy of the department is to the extent that it is not able to pay the salaries of the staff. For last three years no budgetary support has been provided to the department. A large number of off-the road buses and trucks are sent for repair but spare parts are not available and the buses cannot be repaired. Year after year losses are cumulating and the over all loss to the SRTC from March 2012 to December 2015 has computed to Rs 117 crores.
One reason for dwindling revenues is that a large number of buses and trucks have become non functional. These are neither repaired nor auctioned as condemned and unserviceable. Actually there has been large scale corruption and siphoning off of revenue through its functionaries in clandestine collaboration with traffic police and supervisory authorities. It is learnt that the checking system by Corporation squad at different locations like Lakhanpur, Samba, Udhampur, and Ramban etc besides other routes in Kashmir was withdrawn about a decade back alleging drivers/conductors nexus with the inspectors/checking staff. No alterative mechanism that would make pilfering impossible was devised. The result was that it became general loot from driver and conductor to the top in the department. To make things easy for the corrupt functionaries, manual ticketing was never replaced by electronic system which would have put a check to theft. Massive pilferage of fuel has always been one of the corrupt practices resorted to by the drivers and conductors. Mismanagement and general loot in the department has come to a level where the drivers and conductors of the buses consider themselves as the owners of the buses and not the custodians. Transport Minister in the previous Government claimed that the Government was purchasing a fleet of 200 buses to augment the transport industry of the state but in reality no funds were available for the purchase and what the then minister said was nothing short of a hoax.
The Department needs overhauling. It is dying by inches and if no redeeming steps are taken, there will be a day when SRTC will remain only on papers and not on the ground. The first and foremost thing that the Government should do is to provide funds for making the off line buses ply once again on the roads. It means that funds have to be provided so that vehicles languishing in the workshops for repair or for spar parts are made roadworthy. Secondly, a team should be deputed to examine how road transport system in other states especially the city road transport system is efficiently carried out and on profit basis and then recommend a system that would suit our State. It is also possible to consider opening the Corporation for peoples’ participation or what one may ay a joint entrepreneurship in order to bolster revenue and efficiency. Age limit for a passenger bus should be fixed and adhered to meaning when it has completed the period of service, it has to be auctioned and not sent for repairs because that means endangering the lives of the passengers. It is also suggested that the drivers and conductors have to be made partners in the losses and gains and wear and tear of the vehicles so that they are not tempted to rob the Government and at the same time they are infused with the sense that maintenance of the vehicle is their among their primary responsibilities. Adequate and efficient supervisory system has to be in place as we find in all other states of the country. The supervisory staff is to be made answerable if the revenue on a particular route show the dwindling trend. Why and how of the trend ha to be explained and remedied.
The Government may constitute a committee to report on the present status of the SRTC and the ways and means of ameliorating it to make it a profitable enterprise. Total overhauling of the system is required and no piecemeal treatment will do.
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