The state government's free travel scheme for citizens above 75 years of age and 50 percent concession on tickets for women on MSRTC buses led to a huge surge in the number of passengers
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The Maharashtra State Transport Corporation (MSRTC), which was reeling under severe financial crises for the past five-six years, earned a profit of Rs 16.86 crore in August. This is for the first time after nine years that MSRTC had earned a profit.
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In a press release issued by Abhijit Bhosale, the Public Relations Officer of MSRTC, 20 out of 31 departments earned profit last month.
The corporation's Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Madhav Kusekar, congratulated all the employees on this occasion.
MSRTC was financially crippled for two years owing to the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the long-term strike of employees for six months. There were also concerns of the state-run corporation shutting down.
However, from May 2022 onwards, the state-run corporation began taking some steps to bring about changes.
One of the major challenges was to divert the reduced passenger load to MSRTC. For this purpose, the state government launched two schemes: free travel on all types of buses for citizens above 75 years of age and 50 percent concession on tickets for women passengers. These schemes led to a huge increase in the number of passengers on MSRTC buses, with an average of 54 lakh passengers travelling by the state-run buses every day, the release stated.
"Along with this, the MSRTC administration also took initiatives such as Hinduhridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Swachh, Sunder Bus Stand Abhiyan, direct passes to schools for students, Pravasi Raja Day, Workers' Parents Day, and ST Sanghe Teerthatan in Shravan last year, which helped in engaging the passengers and employees. Also, officers were appointed by the central office to guide the departments which were witnessing losses for the past several years and meetings were held at district and taluka levels. Buses were stopped and diverted to other routes. At the same time, the number of buses were also reduced from 12% to 6% from last year. The corporation also took steps to save the fuel. As a result of all these efforts, MSRTC earned a profit of Rs 16.86 crore in the month of August," Kusekar said.
Last week, the corporation went on a strike but it was called off after two days following an intervention meeting by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde who assured the agitating workers’ action committee that the hike of Rs 6,500 on basic salary would be brought into effect for MSRTC employees.
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