Thursday, March, 28,2024

Will Ajitabh’s clarion call to better JCTSL’s situation go unheard?

Jaipur: Can it be believed that the office of a major company of the state govt - Jaipur City Transport Service Limited (JCTSL) - is being handled by only a bus conductor? Neither does the company have any office superintendent, nor any UDC or a LDC or peon. There is only a bus conductor who sits in the office in the name of subordinate staff and it is this person who does all the filling, receipt, dispatch and other works related to office. Moreover there are only three officers. This ‘shocking revelation’ has been mae by the CMD of JCTSL Ajitabh Sharma.

Last week, Sharma painted an entire picture of JCTSL’s past, present and future, in a detailed presentation before CS Usha Sharma. Half a dozen senior officers of the state govt were also present in this presentation that spanned for one and a half hours.

Sharma revealed that situation in JCTSL is abysmal. When in the year 2008 this company was formed, it has 400 low-floor buses and today the number has reduced to 300 and in March 2023, when 100 more buses would be removed from the fleet, there would be merely 200 buses left since no new buses have been purchased over the past decade. Moreover, the company is facing an annual loss of forty five crore rupees and moreover, Rs 162 crore rupees of concession and subsidy are due on the state govt and the govt has not provided any other financial support.

Sharma told CS that the buses ply on 30 routes which result in an average revenue of twenty four lakh rupees daily. All the buses have been handed to private operators on Gross Cost Contact (GCC) model wherein JCTSL conductors work and for operation of the buses, an average of 38 rupees per kilometer is paid. There are a total of 61 cities across the nation where city bus services are being provided and amongst these Bengaluru and Ahmedabad are on number one and two spots respectively. Jaipur is at placed nearly at the end of the list.

According to Ajitabh Sharma, Central govt’s norms state that 60 buses should be operated on one lakh people, in cities that have a population of over 40 lakh. This means that Jaipur needs 2040 buses but as of now, JCTSL is operating 300 while private mini buses, numbering 1500, are being operated. However, the most serious and important fact Ajitabh stressed upon was that the state government itself does not want to bring any stability to the company as even in the past 4 years, 17 CMDs or MDs have been changed. Among these, 8 were officials who held additional charge as a result of which the company has gove ‘down in the dumps’!

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