Maha govt asks 11 departments to give 25% of biz of MSRTC

To support loss-making the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), the Maharashtra government has directed 11 departments to award 25% of their annual transportation business to ST trucks without a competitive bidding process. This will allow the state bus corporation to increase its revenue from Rs 56 crore to Rs 250 crore per year. ST trucks are buses that have been converted into trucks to transport essential and non-essential goods throughout Maharashtra. They can be booked by any government or private agency. MSRTC introduced this innovation during the Covid pandemic in order to increase revenue. It is a huge benefit for our bus corporation, which has been incurring losses during the pandemic, a senior MSRTC official told the media. Our core business, passenger transportation, has taken a significant hit. Less than 2,000 public transportation buses are currently on the road out of a total fleet of 18,000 buses. ST trucks will receive 25% of transportation business from the following government departments: industry, energy and labour, urban development, tribal development, social justice, women and child welfare, school education and sports, cooperative, agriculture, animal husbandry and dairy, planning, and finance. The ST truck service was launched one year ago today. Image Source