On May 21, the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) decided to get their 17,000-odd bus fleet back on the road May 22 onwards, after its services remained shut for nearly two months amid the coronavirus pandemic. The vehicles were allowed to ply in non-red zones all across Maharashtra. However, owing to the outbreak, the buses which usually travel with 22 passengers at a time, are only ferrying seven passengers to adhere to social distancing norms.
This has led to the state transport corporation suffer loss close to ₹6,000 crores. Prior to the lockdown, the ST Corporation would earn up to ₹22 crores daily. However, after the lockdown has been imposed, the daily earnings of the state transport corporation have come down to ₹4 lakh-₹6 lakh, raising concerns for MSRTC.
Owing to the pandemic, even in non-red zones, people other than essential employees are avoiding travelling in public transport. Due to which, in several districts, the ST buses have been ferrying with very few or no passengers. With meagre income compared to the daily expenditure of diesel and maintenance, the losses for ST Corporation have mounted to ₹6,000 crores.
As MSRTC began its operations since May 22 in non-red zones, 457 buses had been used on the first day that carried out 2,007 journeys. On the first day, close to 11,151 passengers were ferried by the MSRTC. Till May 26, 3,118 buses have been run on designated routes and the ST Corporation has been successful in ferrying 93,393 passengers through 14,282 journeys.
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