4 months ago
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The Bharatiya Janata Party-controlled Thiruvananthapuram Corporation and the Left Democratic Front-led authorities sparred connected Wednesday implicit the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) “inconveniencing municipality commuters” by “illegally” extending the operations of the Central government-funded Smart City task electrical buses to the mofussil neighbourhoods.
Thiruvananthapuram Mayor V.V. Rajesh sparked the quality by accusing the KSRTC of contractual violation. He claimed the (BJP-led) Central authorities had underwritten the outgo of the 113-electric-bus fleet arsenic portion of its backing for Smart City projects.
Transport Minister K.B. Ganesh Kumar said the State authorities held a 60% involvement successful Smart City funding, which the Corporation could sick spend to ignore. He added that the KSRTC would instrumentality the buses to the Corporation’s operational power if the Mayor sent a missive to the nationalist utility.
However, Mr. Kumar said the Corporation would person to find its ain parking and operating crew. He noted that the electrical autobus fleet was a achromatic elephant that was bleeding the KSRTC heavily. Moreover, helium besides promised to regenerate the fleet with the 150 caller diesel mini-buses that conscionable contiguous and aboriginal emanation standards.
High attraction
“The electrical buses person a precocious attraction cost, debased tyre mileage and adjacent little operational returns. Each autobus costs ₹1 crore. The batteries volition beryllium retired successful 2026. A caller artillery volition outgo the KSRTC ₹28 lakh per bus. For that amount, the KSRTC could acquisition scores of diesel-powered mini-buses with debased attraction and precocious returns for municipality and agrarian routes,” Mr. Kumar said.
Mr. Kumar said that Thiruvananthapuram was an municipality continuum with nary existent rural-city divide. “For one, the Corporation limits extremity astatine Kazhakuttom. The nearest KSRTC depot is astatine Kaniyapuram adjacent door. The authorities cannot inquire commuters to travel to Kazhakuttom to committee the Smart City autobus to the metropolis centre, helium said.
Mr. Kumar said the KSRTC was the mean person’s transport. “We cannot differentiate passengers based connected whether they hail from the city, rural, rich, oregon mediocre neighbourhoods. The LDF authorities is people-centric,” helium said.
Mr. Rajesh said the corp did not mean to procure electrical buses nearing the extremity of their work beingness from the KSRTC. “The Corporation has capable abstraction to parkland hundreds of buses without the KSRTC’s help. When the Centre provides caller buses nether the Smart City project, the assembly could statement contracting backstage operators to tally the metropolis service, helium added.
