Bengaluru: Nearly 18% of the buses operated by KSRTC have undergone refurbishment since 2023, with the corporation prioritising better fleet utilisation while keeping capital spending on new procurements in check. Of its total fleet of 8,900 buses, 1,568 have been refurbished, including 32 Volvo vehicles.As per norms fixed by the corporation and under revised guidelines, ordinary buses should be scrapped after crossing 11 lakh km of operations or on completing 15 years of service. In the case of premier buses like Volvo, operations are permitted up to 15 lakh km or 15 years. Data shared by the corporation shows that more than half the fleet has already crossed the stipulated kilometre threshold, but continues in service as these buses are yet to complete 15 years.Officials said the 15-year scrapping rule follows directions issued by the Union govt in Jan 2023. “At present, none of our buses has crossed 15 years. However, once a bus crosses 11 lakh km, we assess its operational efficiency. If refurbishment is economically viable, we take it up in our workshops. If a bus is in a poor condition, it is removed from the fleet through scrapping. Refurbishment helps in optimal utilisation until the bus completes 15 years,” a senior KSRTC official said.Responding to concerns over more than half the fleet crossing the 11 lakh km mark, the official said, “Following the Covid-19 outbreak, KSRTC did not induct new buses for a couple of years to reduce financial strain, and there were also directions from the state govt to defer fresh procurement. However, in the last two years, we have inducted 1,138 new buses and scrapped older ones. In the current financial year, 450 buses have been scrapped. In the coming months, we plan to induct 800 new buses, including Pallakki non-AC and around 70 premier buses,” the official added.Among the other three corporations, the North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation has 257 buses that have crossed the 11 lakh km mark, while the Kalyana Karnataka Road Transport Corporation has 2,196 such buses. BMTC does not have any buses that have crossed the 11 lakh km mark.Following the introduction of the Shakti Scheme, the road transport corporations have faced criticism for not operating services in line with demand and for deploying older buses, especially in rural areas. Transport minister Ramalinga Reddy has argued that bus induction was halted for four years during the BJP regime, affecting fleet expansion, and that fresh measures to induct new buses began only after Congress came to power. He said more than 6,000 buses have been procured in the last two-and-a-half years and nearly 10,000 staff recruited, which did not happen under previous govts.While the Shakti Scheme has enabled the corporations to carry large volumes of passengers, it has not translated into a significant expansion of fleet size. The corporations have issued over 680 crore tickets under the scheme, incurring an expenditure of Rs 17,647 crore, of which Rs 13,073 crore has been reimbursed by the govt, leaving Rs 4,573 crore pending.
