At a time when J&K State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) is unable to ply its existing fleet of buses and incapable of paying full salaries to its employees, the loss making public sector undertaking is planning to spend Rs10 crore on a Global Positioning System (GPS) mapping project.
The GPS project aimed to ‘identify’ bus routes and the introduction of e-ticketing in SRTC buses comes at a time when the corporation is facing Rs 20 crore deficit, sources said.
In addition, the corporation at present is paying 34 percent less salary to its employees compared to other state corporations, said an employee, who wished not to be named.
The loss-making corporation needs state government’s budgetary support to pay Rs 60 crore in salaries per annum to its employees.
“It is unfair that the corporation is planning illogical projects when it cannot pay salaries. On the other hand, the employees who are on deputation here receive salary as per state government standards,” said the employee.
Presently out of 800-bus fleet of SRTC, 40 percent to 45 percent fleet is off the road but despite that corporation is eyeing ‘ hi-tech and big ticket’ projects, said another officer of the corporation. He said the corporation is planning to make all its buses GPS-enabled, for which the cost of conducting route mapping along with purchasing equipment would be Rs10 crore.
“At a time when we don’t have a good and efficient fleet of vehicles, it’s not viable to spend on such technology,” he said.
When contacted, Managing Director, SRTC, GA Sofi said it is already decided and the corporation is going to launch the ‘pilot’ phase of the GPS project soon. Installation of GPS system will help in scheduling of buses and is important for the modernization of the fleet.
Arguing that corporation is now doing better as compared to earlier years, Sofi said it has been able to generate revenue of Rs100 crore during fiscal year 2015-16.
“We are planning to undertake the project in a PPP mode so that we have to pay Rs10 crore in installments and we are hoping state governments support for the project. Besides we are bringing back many of the old buses back on the roads to generate more revenue,” Sofi said, adding, SRTC would be soon procuring 13 new buses.
Sofi said under the modernization project, SRTC is also planning to install 200 e-ticketing machines in its ‘fleet’. “We have spent Rs10 lakh on procurement of these e-ticketing machines,” Sofi said.
“These e-machines will help to root out defaced tickets and provide tickets of exact value. As for salaries are concerned we cannot do injustice to employees on deputation by putting them in the same bracket as the corporation employees,” Sofi said.
Cash-starved SRTC to spend `10 cr on GPS project
