Thiruvananthapuram: KSRTC has been offering free travel worth Rs 28.5 crore in a month. Free travel is offered as per the guidelines of the state government's policy and is in the limelight at a time when KSRTC struggles to dispense salaries and pensions regularly. 

Free travel worth nearly Rs 14 crore is offered to students alone. It was during the end of the UDF regime in 2016 that the government started free travel for students. Before that, the students used to travel under concession rates in KSRTC buses. KSRTC has been urging the government for bringing some restrictions on the free travel offered to students ever since the first Pinarayi Vijayan came into power in the same year. 

The monthly revenue of KSRTC ranges from Rs 200 to Rs 210 crore. Its monthly expenditures are around Rs 240 crore, even if the pension liabilities were excluded.  KSRTC officials claim that if the government compensates for the free travel for students, then the corporation can distribute salaries without fail.

Meanwhile, Minister for Transport Antony Raju asserted that the government will not scrap the free travel for students. However, a restriction has been introduced based on the age of the beneficiaries. The students who passed 25 years of age and the pensioners who are studying now will not be able to claim free service hereafter, said the minister.