Following the exponential rise in the Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra, the North Eastern Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NEKRTC), the state-operated transport authority is facing the revenue loss of over 70% every day.
When everything was returning to normal and the number of buses operating to Maharashtra from Karnataka were increasing gradually but with the hit of second wave of Covid has forced the transport authorities to cut the bus services by over 60 percent.
According to the NEKRTC of Bijapur division, “About 120 buses used to operate to the various cities, towns and villages of Maharashtra till the first week of February.
It used to generate around Rs 15 lakh revenue daily. Since two weeks the number of buses operating to neighboring state has been reduced to 50 buses and struggling to gross revenue upto Rs 5 lakh a day.”
The NEKRTC buses mainly operate to Kolhapur, Solapur, Jatha, Pune, Mumbai, Ichalkaranji, Miraj and other cities of Maharashtra.
Everyday around 20 percent of the total revenue of NEKRTC of Bijapur division is generated from the buses that operate to neighboring state.
Narayanappa K, Division Controller of NEKRTC Bijapur pointed that, “Though we are operating the buses with taking all the necessary precautions.
The buses are running empty as the people in Maharashtra are afraid to take public transport fearing of novel coronavirus. This is affecting the business from the last couple of weeks.
Also At present the buses are being operated in loss as we are grappling to gross at least Rs 5 lakh revenue a day from the buses operating to neighboring state.”
“We have brought this to the notice of higher authorities. If the cases keep increasing the number of buses operating to Maharashtra will be cut down by another 10 percent in coming days.
However, the number of buses operating to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have remained the same,” added DC Naryanappa.
