Poor transport units make services unviable

The White Paper has highlighted the mismanagement of the finances of the State Transport Undertakings (STUs) that have been weighed down by an outstanding debt of nearly ₹40,000 crore.

The eight STUs have been leaking money, with their total outstanding debt of ₹39,883 crore being the second highest after that of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco).

The State’s total debt stood at ₹1,99,572 crore as on March 31.

The operation of the STUs — of which accumulated losses stood at ₹42,143 crore (2020-21) as against ₹8,761 crore in 2011-12 — has become unsustainable with ₹59.15 being lost per kilometre for every bus operated, the White Paper says.

As against the cost of ₹96.75 per kilometre, the STUs are earning just ₹37.60, even after the government compensates a portion of the loss with grants, diesel subsidies and free student passes.

Having borrowed heavily from the Tamil Nadu Transport Development Finance Corporation and banks, the STUs have been incurring huge losses on account of the high cost of salary and pension, diesel and servicing of interest on loans, the White Paper says.

The employee cost remains the highest, at ₹8,235 crore, against the total cost of ₹13,353 crore for 2020-21. It was ₹3,757 crore in 2011-12.

Compared with the 2011-12 figures, the only cost which has come down is that of diesel (₹1,966 crore). But the correct diesel cost could not be arrived at with the services remaining non-operational for several months on account of the COVID-19 lockdown.

The government’s failure to match the bus fares with diesel prices over the years and undertake route rationalisation, besides ceding profitable routes to private operators, has remained the bane for the STUs.

The White Paper says the shrinking share of the public transport is evident from the STUs not adding much to the fleet strength in the past decade; the fleet strength is only getting reduced. The fleet strength in 2011-12 was 21,197 buses as against 20,670 now.