KSRTC will not get new buses; earlier decision to allocate a mistake, says Minister Ganesh Kumar

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) will no longer receive new buses, Minister Ganesh Kumar has announced, calling the earlier decision to allocate them a mistake.

According to the minister, providing salaries and benefits to KSRTC employees under the existing duty system leads to heavy losses. Consequently, all new buses will henceforth be allocated to SWIFT, as was previously done. The rationale, he explained, is that SWIFT can operate these buses profitably since its temporary employees are paid lower wages.

The shift in policy follows strong protests from KSRTC employee unions, who opposed the reduction in duty hours for drivers and conductors on the newly introduced Superfast Premium buses. The duty hours were reduced because these buses had fewer stops. However, following the protests, the new buses were withdrawn, replaced with older ones, and the previous duty schedules reinstated. The withdrawn buses have now been handed over to SWIFT.

All buses purchased after 2022 had initially been allotted to SWIFT. Following protests from KSRTC employees, the minister had decided to allocate the next batch to KSRTC — a decision he now describes as a mistake. The minister made these remarks while attending the inauguration of various projects at the KSRTC Chief Office.

Under the current system, SWIFT employees receive ₹715 for eight hours of work and ₹130 per hour for overtime. In contrast, KSRTC employees must be assigned duties in line with existing agreements. When permanent employees are deployed on long-distance routes, they must be given four or five separate duties. To overcome this operational constraint, contract-based appointments were introduced for SWIFT.

During the tenure of former CMD Biju Prabhakar, long-distance services were assigned exclusively to SWIFT, a move intended to reduce costs and improve revenue. However, trade unions have alleged that this has led to labour exploitation under the guise of efficiency. They maintain that their recent protests were not against SWIFT itself, but against the reduction in duty hours, which they claim violated existing agreements.