With the surge in female passengers following the launch of the Shakti scheme, the Kalyana Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (KKRTC) has planned to expand the number of buses by refurbishing its 300 old buses to accommodate the growing demand for services in the seven districts of Kalyana Karnataka.
As of now, around 85 decommissioned buses of KKRTC have been refurbished and continue to operate on various schedules across Kalyana Karnataka, and the remaining 215 buses are being refurbished at KKRTC depots across the region.
In addition to this, the KKRTC has already got 388 new buses against the 802 buses sanctioned by using funds provided by the Kalyana Karnataka Region Development Board (KKRDB) during the. In total, the KKRTC has 4,675 buses to operate across the region.
KKRTC Managing Director M. Rachappa told The Hindu that to meet the increasing passenger demand, the KKRTC has planned to refurbish old buses by replacing their chassis, windows, and even rebuilding the exterior body to give the buses a brand new look.
The KKRTC had chosen buses that are around 10 years old and have run 8 lakh kilometres or more. The new bus costs around ₹35 lakh to ₹40 lakh, while the old buses were getting refurbished for just ₹2 lakh to ₹3 lakh.
Mr. Rachappa said that after introducing the Shakti scheme, the total traffic revenue generated by KKRTC was ₹233.48 crore. It was ₹47.8 crore in June, ₹87.13 crore in July, and ₹88.55 crore in August.
The KKRTC has increased its bus schedules by 203 per day. With this the number of schedules has gone up from the previous 4,028 to 4,231 per day. Similarly, it has also added 1,959 trips, and the total number of trips have increased from 22,214 to 24,173 per day.
After the implementation of the Shakti scheme, the KKRTC daily passengers has risen by 3.13 lakh. From 13.58 lakh a day, it has risen to 16.71 lakh passengers in last two-and-a-half months period, Mr. Rachappa added.
