Dear friends,

Sequel to exchange of mail as below with Mr. Vittal Murthy, I met him this afternoon. He showed very keen interest, went through the whole scheme, point by point, and expressed overall agreement with it all.

I also told him to wise up the CM that implementation of the policy could be the most powerful instrument to ensure his party's return in the next year's elections.

He was most receptive, and I feel fairly certain that he will do his best to push it through.

Let's see how it develops.

Regards,

Muralidhar Rao

From: muralidhar
To: Transport Commissioner Sent: Friday, July 04, 2003 18:05 PM Subject: public bus transport sector reforms
From: Muralidhar Rao, Vice President, Indian Liberal Group (Bangalore Chapter), 255, Defence Colony, Bangalore 560 038 , (Ph no: 080-5274270)
To: Mr Vittal Murthy, IAS, Transport Commissioner, Karnataka, Bangalore

Dear Sir,

Sub: public bus transport sector reforms

Congratulations to you on assuming office as the new Transport Commissioner, Karnataka.

Sir, we of the Indian Liberal Group (Bangalore Chapter) have been advocating liberalisation of the state public bus transport sector from over a year now. Our letter addressed to the Chief Minister, in this connection, is attached herewith as a word document. We had been interacting regularly with your predecessor, Sri Thimme Gowda, and he was kind enough to push through the reforms agenda at least to the extent of opening out the stage carriage operations in cities, other than Bangalore, to private players, however within a 20 km radius. Though that was far below our expectations and we had told him so, we find that even that has not been implemented as yet. We request the needful from you in the matter at the earliest.

Sir, we also look forward to an early opportunity to meet you in person in this regard, at your earliest convenience.

Thanking you,

Yours truly,

Muralidhar Rao

From: Transport Commissioner's Office
To: muralidhar
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2003 5:17 PM
Subject: Re: public bus transport sector reforms

Dear Muralidhar Rao,

Thank you for your email. We are taking action to implement the scheme to private operation for City Service within 20 kms radius of the District HQ, other than Bangalore City. If you have any more suggestions, kindly send them to me.

Commissioner for Transport, Bangalore

Letter to Chief Minister, Karnataka

To:
Sri S M Krishna,
Honourable Chief Minister,
Govt Of Karnataka,
Bangalore

Dear Sir

Sub: The shackled public bus transport sector

The Indian Liberal Group has been set up to put forward and propagate the liberal point of view with its focus on ‘freedom with responsibility’.

We firmly believe that the public bus transport sector in the state has remained painfully shackled all these years, contributing considerably to the poor quality of life of its citizens. It is in urgent need of reforms, possibly along the lines outlined in the ‘public bus transport policy’ enunciated by us. We have listed the same below. Alongwith, we have also listed out the likely scenario that could emerge out of the implementation of the policy. We do not see where or how it could be faulted. On the other hand, we see so many benefits accruing to the city as well as the citizens.

STATE PUBLIC BUS TRANSPORT POLICY

1. Public bus transport sector to be opened out totally.
2. The classifications such as stage carriages, contract carriages, maxi cabs, etc to be withdrawn, and annual license fees charged on the basis of the vehicle floor area.
3. All bus stands to be taken over and run (or better still- leased out to professional contractors) by local bodies, like BMP, City Corporations, Municipalities, etc, making the facilities available to all service providers against user charges.
4 Service providers to be free to choose the routes they wish to operate on, as also the schedules. RTO to be empowered to impose restrictions only in the case of overcrowding of routes/roads.
5 Service providers to be totally free to adopt their own fare tables. There are to be no restrictions on fares, whatsoever.
6 Public bus transport vehicles to be maintained in exacting road-worthy condition. No public bus transport vehicle to be more than 10 years old.
7 Traffic authorities, throughout the state, to ensure top priority for movement of public bus transport vehicles.
8 Policing of public bus transport vehicles to be made very strict, with heavy penalties being levied in cases of offences like over-speeding, rash & negligent driving, drunken driving, over-loading, etc.
9 An efficient bus transport system (with government and private players operating in open competition) to form the backbone of the public transport system. In large cities, these to be supplemented by METRO rail as the situation warrants.

Notes:

1. KSRTC (and its subsidiaries) and BMTC may be incorporated into companies, with employees holding substantial stake.
2. KSRTC (and its subsidiaries) and BMTC may be allowed 100% concession on annual license fee for their vehicles for a period of 3 years (from the date of the policy coming into effect), and 50% concession for the next two years, and 25% concession thereafter.
3. Buses run by co-operative societies may be allowed 25% concession on annual license fees.

Likely scenario resulting at the end of 3 to 6 months of implementation of policy:

1. Corporates like TVS, Ashok Leyland, etc, alongside the present contract-carriage operators like Blueline, VRL, Sharma Transports, KPN, etc, apart from co-operatives like those formed by ex-servicemen, likely to come on the scene with hundreds of buses, catering to all kinds and classes of demand.
2. The resulting competition will automatically drive the different service providers to come up with innovative schemes of attracting more and more people to switch over to the use of the buses rather than relying on their individual vehicles.
3. At the lower end, you will have the ‘Janata’ services, stopping at all bus stops enroute, and charging the barest minimum (which in all possibility will be much lower than BMTC’s present charges).
4. At the upper end, you will have the A/C deluxe services ( possibly with broad, reclining seats, newspapers & magazines for reading, etc) catering to corporate executives, and operating from say Whitefield to Residency road, with just some 5 stops in-between. These buses may also cater to students of say Bishop Cottons School, possibly with a 25% concession being offered to them.
5. In between, you will have a wide spectrum of services, with each service provider making known his USP through the local media.
6. Even within a Jayanagar or a Indiranagar, you will have mini-buses operating in given circuits, catering to the local shopping and other needs of the residents.
7. The usage of two-wheelers and cars will reduce drastically, at least for commuting, leading to-
a. de-cluttering of city roads, thereby providing room for speedy movement of buses,
b. reduction of air pollution with lower per capita consumption of fuel,
c. spread of population from city centres to out-lying areas due to ready availability of cheap and efficient means of transport,
d. promotion of the healthy practice of walking at least to & from the bus stops,
e. an appreciable drop in the monthly family transport budget.
8. In the rural areas also, the demand for good public transport will lead to entrepreneurs / co-operatives coming forward to meet it, and healthy competition will ensure efficient and cheap services.

In this connection, a reference is made to the report on ‘Bus Transport Systems’ displayed on the website of the Union Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (refer attachment), salient excerpts from which are listed below, for your ready reference:

• Promoting public bus transport should be viewed as a priority in any strategy to improve urban road traffic and in controlling air pollution from automobiles. The country can ill afford the luxury of unchecked growth of private vehicle population. The costs to the country’s economy in terms of higher fuel consumption and to the society in terms of health are significant enough to warrant urgent action.
• Clearly, there is a strong case for promoting private enterprise in meeting transport needs in urban areas.
• An aspect of public policy that impacts on provision and expansion of public transport either by state owned utilities or by private entrepreneurs, relates to the unviable fare structures imposed by the authority.
• With improved efficiency, the fare structure can continue to remain low while still providing for overall viability of the operations.

As you will notice, the ‘policy’ enunciated by us takes into account all these factors.

These apart, a recent study conducted by the renowned Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore, summarises its findings as such:
“The access to government buses is quite high in many districts. In comparison, usage is low despite many considering government buses to be less expensive than private buses. This can be mainly attributed to lower satisfaction with punctuality and frequency, and speak of the poor quality and reliability of the government transport system”.

Reforms on the lines suggested by us, we feel, Sir, can single-handedly bring about a much needed transformation in the quality of life of the citizens in both urban and rural areas.

Thanking you,

Yours truly,

For Indian Liberal Group (Bangalore Chapter),

Sd/-
Santosh Nedungadi