Report on – North East Karnataka Road Transport Corporation
_______________________________________________________________________
Executive Summary
1.
North-East Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NE-KnRTC) has jurisdiction
over five districts of Karnataka state Viz.(Bidar, Gulbarga, Bellary, Raichur, and
Koppal)
2.
This study has its focus on economic viability of the corporation and its ability to
provide the best services and facilities to the passengers.
3.
Fleet utilization of NE-KnRTC, which is the proportion of buses put on road to
the buses held, has decreased from 100% to 95% over three years and this
percentage of fleet utilization in other corporations is also varying over periods
too.
The age profile of the bus normally determines the optimum utilization of the bus
4.
in public service. NE-KnRTC has 5.58 lakh of kms of use in 2006-07, which is
short of nearly one lakh kms compared to its use in 2004-05.
5.
Fuel efficiency of NW-KnRTC and NE-KnRTC are 5.23 and 5.45 KMPL in 200607 respectively. NE-KnRTC has improved its fuel efficiency compared to NWKnRTC.
6.
Fuel performance of the corporations – NW-KnRTC and NE-KnRTC buses is
even better and consistent when compared with other corporation figures.
7.
The average rate of accidents in rural STUs is 0.17 and in urban STUs is 0.34 in
2006-07 for all STUs. NE-KnRTC has an accident rate of 0.13 per lakh km in
2006-07. The quality of service improves if STUs can achieve zero accidents rate
in their service operations.
8.
The percentage of traffic revenue of NE-KnRTC to total revenues is 92.82 in
2006-07. Since this portion of revenue is an indicator of popularity of the
services, NE-KnRTC has to move in the direction of improving the services in
quality and quantity.
9.
Poor financial performance is attributable to competition from private operators
and the low traffic density routes. They can improve their financial performance
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Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
Report on – North East Karnataka Road Transport Corporation
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by scientific Routing and Scheduling, increasing the share of Inter District and
Intra State through the addition of Volves, deluxe buses etc.
10.
The operation ratios of NE-KnRT are 102.72% and 101.69% in 2005-06 and
2006-07 respectively. Compared to other corporation this value is on higher side
in 2006-07 and the efficiency of management will be higher if this value is below
80%.
11.
A large number of passengers (57%) belong to 20-35 years age group followed by
30% of them belonging to 35-50 years group. Income wise 59% of the
respondents have Rs.2001-5000 monthly family earnings and 27% of them have
Rs.5000-10000 monthly family earnings. The major occupations of the
passengers are Agriculture (50%), Service (16%) and Business (14%) and
Students (6%)
12.
The travel made by the passengers within city is mostly by NE-KnRTC services
and only 2% of them have used private bus service for intercity travel.
13.
The important reasons mentioned to travel in NE-KnRTC in all divisions are

It is the safest

It is run by a Government Corporation
14.
The first three travel attributes as expected by the passengers are

Passenger Friendly behavior of the Staff

Travel Duration (Journey time)

Safety of the Journey
15.
Existing attributes of quality of services of NE-KnRTC can be grouped into three
categories based on the opinions of the passengers.
A. Satisfied:
o Handling of Luggage
o Punctuality
o Speed
B. Comfortable:
o Frequency
o Facilities in Bus Shelter/Stand/Terminal
o Seat Availability
o Comfort in the Bus
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Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
Report on – North East Karnataka Road Transport Corporation
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C. Need Improvement:
o Fare (Cost of the Ticket)
o Reliability
o Convenient Timings
16.
The passengers desire some qualitative improvement in staff behavior in respect
of two aspects.

Helpful to: Women, Elderly and Children

Honesty: Diligently issuing Tickets
17.
Most significant reasons for breakdown appear to be the poor maintenance of
vehicles and followed by bad condition of roads. This is equally true in all
divisions
18.
The main factor influencing pilferage in collection is the nexus between the
conductors and passenger as revealed by the passengers.
19.
NE-KnRTC services are good in providing better facilities than the Private
Operators in the following aspects.







Leg room between seats
Convenient places for boarding
Convenient places for alighting
Comfortable Seating
Courteous and well mannered crew/staff
Convenient stops during the journey for snacks/coffee/lunch/dinner
Driving is smooth and safe and less of rash driving
20.
Nearly 43% in Bidar, 34% in Gulbarga and 23% in Bellary out of 549 responses
favor functional freedom and authority to NE-KnRTC management in deciding
the routes and frequencies.
21.
Age wise, 48% of them belong to 20-35 years group, 48% to 35-50 years group.
Occupation wise the respondents belong to government service (49%),
Housewives (24%), private service (24%) and elected representatives (2%).
education levels of the respondents are reasonably high to enhance the quality of
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Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
Report on – North East Karnataka Road Transport Corporation
_______________________________________________________________________
the survey. They have Primary level (11%), High school level (17%), and college
level (70%) of education. Only 2% are illiterate.
22.
Preference to travel by NE-KnRTC in all divisions comes as

It is being run by Government Corporation

It is the safest through these services.
23.
Half of the opinion makers support the two statements that convey the message of
lesser dependence on public services

Public should be encouraged to use personalized vehicles than relying on
Public Transport (50%)

Because of shortage of Buses in NE-KnRTC people are forced to use
personalized vehicles (58%)
24.
Passenger Friendly behavior of the Staff, Safety of the Journey and Travel
Duration (Journey time) are Important Attributes of Transport Systems.
25.
The quality of most of services of NE-KnRTC is at satisfactory / slightly good
levels. Some notable quality services mentioned are




Punctuality
Handling of Luggage
Facilities in Bus Shelter/Stand/Terminus
Providing the best services to the public
26.
The passengers look for some improvements in respect of
Honesty: Diligently issuing Tickets
Helpful to: Women, Elderly and Children
27.
The perception of breakdowns of NE-KnRTC services (70%) is more compared
to private buses (1%). Breakdowns of buses is more in Bidar and Gulbarga
divisions.
28.
NE-KnRTC scores high in respect of the listed quality of services over the Private
Operators

Timings of bus/ convenient departure and arrival

Reliability of service (on time Departure and Arrival)

Easy ticketing facility

Facilities in Bus Shelter / Stand / Terminus

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Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
Report on – North East Karnataka Road Transport Corporation
_______________________________________________________________________




Convenient places for boarding
Convenient places for alighting
Safety of the journey / lesser rash driving
Cleanliness of exterior
29.
Highly voted suggestions are 1). Cancellation of Schedules /Trips /Services when
there is no patronage and 2). Needs support from Government to do better to
make NE-KnRTC continue to provide efficient and cost-effective transport
services.
30.
There are 13 Managers, 166 Drivers/Conductors and 126 technical and
administrative workers in this opinion survey.
31.
Majority of the employees, 254 out of 305 (83%) under study do not have any
promotion in their entire service periods under KSRTC and NE-KnRTC.
32.
About 33% of the employees opine that the NE-KnRTC buses are in poor
condition to provide comfortable travel.
33.
The order of importance of the factors to achieve better KMPL is
i.
Road Condition
ii. Bus Condition
iii. Driving Habits
iv.
Bus Maintenance
v.
Route
34. The first set of the factors – Passengers expectations from the transport system are
o
Travel safety
o
Fare
o
Punctuality
o
Schedule timings.
35.
Privatization is opposed by a large number of employees (99%) with a similar
opinion in all divisions. 52% of respondents prefer to run as departmental one and
however 28% of them prefer better patronize from government.
36.
The presence of private transport services operating parallel to the public
transport services and lack of control on illegal operations appear to be other
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Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
Report on – North East Karnataka Road Transport Corporation
_______________________________________________________________________
important problems to the corporation. This opinion has emerged from 52% and
57% of the respondents respectively in the survey.
37.
Without differences among the divisions, 62% of the employees feel that the
conditions of roads in their areas are pathetic
38.
Breakdown of NE-KnRTC buses are experienced by 56% respondents [Gulbarga
(63%), Bidar (52%) and Bellary (55%)] and the breakdown reasons may be
ordered on the basis of agreement of responses as 1.Bad conditions of road (91%),
2.Poor maintenance of vehicles (87%), 3.Aged vehicle (85%) and 4.Rude
handling by drivers (46%)
39.
NE-KnRTC services provide clearly better facilities in respect of

Timings of bus/ convenient departure and arrival

Convenient places for alighting

Convenient places for boarding

Facilities in Bus Shelter / Stand / Terminus

Safety of the journey / less rash driving
40. Factors contributing to Earnings per Km in order of their importance are
i.
Better services
ii.
Better traffic management
iii.
Provision for luggage
iv.
Appropriate fares
v.
Publicity
41.
More than 50% responses are agreeable with the statements about effectiveness
of vigilance and passengers’ responsible role in curbing pilferage. 40% of the
respondents have disagreed with the truth of their role in pilferage and 37% of
them disagree with the existing of high absenteeism in their division.
42.
None of the cities in these districts will have projected population of one million
plus in 2016. To handle intra district and rural services, there will be a need of
1553 and 1613 buses in years 2011 and 2016 respectively. For inter district
services the demand will be 1184 and 1299 buses for the years 2011 and 2016
respectively. Inter state operations could be managed with 357 buses and 396
buses in the specified years 2011 and 2016.Thus, the total demand of 3094 buses
for 2011 and 3308 buses for 2016 is projected to service all segments of the
region covered by NE-KnRTC bus services
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Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
Report on – North East Karnataka Road Transport Corporation
_______________________________________________________________________
43.
NE-KnRTC is currently running about 2425 buses to cater to all segments. The
organization needs to plan additional buses to the extent of 1000 buses by 2016.
These additions are over and above the replacements needed for over aged fleet
44.
It is estimated that in 2008 – 09, 400 buses will be required for both additional
service and for replacement. For the next four years, 1200 buses will be required
in total considering the age of the fleet and proposed expansion. Investment will
be required for infrastructure also for building bus stands and it is proposed for
the next four years from 2008-09 to 2011–12 the corporation would require Rs.
108 crore, Rs.94 crore, Rs.74 crore, and Rs.43 crore respectively.
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Indian Institute of Management Bangalore