Udupi: Ramalinga Reddy, Minister for state transport said that depending on the price reduction for fuel in the international market we cannot reduce the bus fare, as it will not stay stagnant. “Right now there is no plan for fare reduction”.

He was speaking to media here on Wednesday in the city and stressed that diesel price has not been reduced in Karnataka. The opposition is misleading the public by holding protest for not reducing bus fare. BJP is in power in 10 states in the country, let them cut the fuel prices, then I will think about reducing the bus fare here”.

Here in Udupi and DK, and shimoga most of the public depend on private buses but most of the other districts are completely dependent on KSRTC services.  In the North-East Corporation, for BMTC services we have received ‘Award of Excellence’. Next target is North –West Corporation. Karnataka should provide best KSRTC and BMTC services. Out of 545 new KSRTC busses, 30 will be given to Udupi before March, he said.

KSRTC is now running on a “No profit and no loss” basis. None of the states in the country has achieved profit in BMTC services. Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Ahmedabad had less profit and the reason behind it may be increasing diesel price, salary and spare parts prices”. “Government busses here are run with obligations, unlike private buses, we can’t stop services if they are in loss”

As far as Udupi is concerned, under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) scheme, 6 crore worth new bus depot will be started soon and also Under (JnNURM), another 40 cents land of old DDPI office will be used for the construction of a new bus stand.

The bus stand project on PWD land, covering 2.94 acres at Bannanje, which was rejected by 3 CM’s, Jagadeesh Shettar, Sadananda Gowda and Yeddyurappa will be done by our government for sure.

The present Depot is being acquired for a  National Highway truck bay for parking, however the present MLA had proposed an alternative to keep this depot as the same and allocated another land in between Kallianpur and Uppur for a truck bay.

Regarding cleanliness of the KSRTC buses he said, that there are washing machines at all the Depots, and apart from that even contract has been given to maintain  cleanliness in the busses. He said public should also be responsible in keeping the buses clean.

He visited all the KSRTC proposed lands including existing bus stand.