Continue bus service to 11 villages, mayor tells KMT

Kolhapur: Mayor Ashwini Ramane has directed the Kolhapur Municipal Transport (KMT) to roll back its decision to stop services to 11 fringe villages.

On May 30, the KMT administration had decided to stop services to Wadgaon, Kuditre, Koge, Shiroli, Chuye, Yevati, Bachani, Koyana Colony, Wadakshiwale, Bahireshwar and Mharul. The decision was taken to reduce losses caused to the transport undertaking that amounted to Rs 2,700 per trip.

Speaking in favour of continuing the service to nearby villages, Ramane said the fringe areas have already developed and the villages located in far-flung areas too are getting urbanised. "The city houses several government offices and the people living in these villages travel here every day for work and business. These people are denepdent on KMT buses for transport," states the order issed by the mayor on June 7.

The KMT is struggling to manage its finances owing to increasing expenses on salaries, maintenance of vehicles and daily fuel requirement.

The KMT officials had claimed that it can reduce the losses, up to Rs 1.5 lakh every day, by stopping plying of buses on long routes. The KMT wrote letters to the heads of these villages asking them to convince the villagers to uses KMT buses or else the transport service will be cancelled. While heads of some villages have responded to the KMT's positively, others have clearly ignored it.

Ramane said, "Schools and colleges will restart soon and it will be inconvenient for them if the the buses are cancelled. I have suggested that some old buses, which are good enough, can be used for long routes. I believe that the service is important and losses can be reduced by other means. We cannot stop the service which is on since a decade."

Recently, the KMT had scrapped over 50 old buses as they were unfit for plying on roads. The new buses have a smaller seating capacity as against the old ones and therefore are not affordable to ply on long routes. Officials are considering hiring buses from private parties to provide service to these villages.