Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, a cooperative society has stepped in to strengthen the cash-strapped Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), buying a bus with its public welfare fund and oႇering it to the state-run transport utility.
The Calicut City Service Cooperative Society has forked out Rs 40 lakh to purchase a new KSRTC bus, with the vehicle proposed to operate on the Kozhikode-Palakkad-Muthalamada-Parambikulam route.
Transport Minister C.P. John on August 11 welcomed the initiative, describing it as a strong example of how public sector institutions could be supported through people’s participation. The minister said the government was actively considering a proposal to permit cooperative societies to use their public welfare funds to support the KSRTC.
The initiative comes at a time when KSRTC is seeking to expand and modernise its ageing Àeet. The government has set a target of putting 2,000 new buses on the roads, and the minister said such peopledriven initiatives could help the corporation move towards that goal. The proposal for the bus service was reportedly born out of the travel diႈculties experienced by people in the Muthalamada region.
A local cancer institute’s Chairman C.N. Vijayakrishnan, who had earlier contested from the Nenmara Assembly constituency, took up the initiative after witnessing the diႈculties faced by passengers and government employees travelling to the area.
