Transport Minister and ST Corporation Chairman Pratap Sarnaik assured that he will try to bring the ST Corporation, which has been continuously making losses for the past several years, into profit in the next four years.
A financial white paper has been prepared to understand the exact financial position of the State Transport (ST) Corporation and for future planning. The white paper was released at the ST Corporation headquarters in Mumbai Central. Dr. Madhav Kusekar, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of the Corporation, as well as the heads of all departments were present on this occasion.
On this occasion, Minister Sarnaik said, out of the last 45 years, ST Corporation was profitable for only eight years. It is the need of the hour for ST, which provides safe transportation services to about 5.5 million passengers every day, to be financially viable in the future.
In 2018-19, the accumulated loss of ST was around INR 4,600 crore. However, due to the lockdown during the Corona pandemic and later due to the prolonged strike by the employees, the accumulated loss has now reached INR 10,322 crore. This includes the employees' dues of around INR 3,000 crore.
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Of course, for this, it is very important for the state government to help the ST Corporation in the form of grants. Sarnaik assured that as a minister, he will follow up to solve these problems to bring the financial train of ST back on track. However, Sarnaik suggested that ST officers and employees should also increase productivity and make savings in the right places to reduce the financial losses of the organisation.
According to the slogan "ST in every village, ST on every road", the services of the ST Corporation are being extended to the masses. However, in many places, ST services do not reach the tribal brothers living in the hills and remote areas.
“The plan is to start direct ST services soon after taking information about such areas, where large 11-meter and 12-meter buses cannot reach due to narrow roads. We will be purchasing 50 special mini buses there. Although running these mini buses is a loss for ST, we are committed to providing passenger services to the tribals by bearing that loss”, said Minister Sarnaik.
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