1,194 KSRTC buses are over 15 years old, only 2,300 have insurance cover

A KSRTC bus that overturned into the Kaliyampuzha river near Pulloorampara in Kozhikode. (File pic)
| Photo Credit: SP

The spree of recent accidents and fires, mostly involving ill-maintained and old Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses, has shed light on the need to modernise its ageing fleet of buses, 1,194 of which are well over 15 years old and ought to have been scrapped, an RTI query has revealed.

The query says that the corporation has a total of 5,523 buses, which includes 444 KSRTC Swift buses that are in operable condition. “That almost one fourth of its fleet are over 15-years old, of which 1,080 buses are still in active service, presents a scary picture,” says Raju Vazhakkala, a city-based RTI activist who sought the details from the KSRTC. “Even scarier is the revelation that only 2,300 of its buses have insurance cover. This alarming statistics show the implications that such old and mostly-shoddily-maintained buses have on the safety of passengers and other road users, and the grey areas in claiming compensation in the wake of an accident.”

Among the 2,300 buses having insurance cover, 1,902 buses, as well as the KSRTC Swift buses, have only third-party insurance cover (meaning that their passengers do not get the insurance cover). The accident compensation for buses that do not have insurance cover are paid by the KSRTC itself, based on compensation awarded by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) concerned, the KSRTC says in the RTI reply.

The RTI reply speaks volumes about the plight of the KSRTC, a bulk of whose buses do not have insurance cover. This is despite the fact that the agency’s buses are involved in at least 10 accidents every day. The agency has also not maintained proper records of compensation paid from 2016. Having to pay compensation from its revenue generated from passengers is among the reasons for it being unable to pay salary promptly to employees, Mr. Vazhakkala says.

Public transport enthusiast Antony B.J., who retired from the MVD as senior deputy transport commissioner and is currently the MD of Kleen Smart Bus Limited (KSBL), opined that before this year, seldom before have KSRTC buses been in the news for reasons like fire and other accidents owing to slack upkeep. “The agency must take a serious view of such accidents and an in-depth probe must be done by an independent third-party agency, and not by KSRTC and the MVD. The possibility of sabotage too must be considered.”

Road worthiness

The road worthiness of the KSRTC’s SuperFast buses is particularly in question, considering the increasing number of accidents they are involved in, which include the wheels coming off from moving buses. Whatever be the case, there is no justification for the KSRTC increasing the age limit of its SuperFast buses from five to 12 years during the past few years, for which it cited funds paucity to purchase new buses as a reason, says Mr. Antony.