Newindpress
Udupi, Feb 15: Private buses in Dakshina Kannada district are economically viable than those operated by the KSRTC. This was revealed in a comparative study on public and private buses in Dakshina Kannada district.
The study conducted by professor at SMS College, Shirva, V Sham Bhat found that 82 per cent of commuters preferred both State-owned buses and private ones. The study was conducted between 2004-06 to examine, measure and assess the performance of public and private transport system in DK district.
The study also analyzed the issues related to the organization and finances of bus transport system in the district. A total of 50 private bus operators were interviewed including 200 employees and 400 travellers. The views of transport authorities were elicited by interviewing 15 officials including the RTO.
The study found that bus operators in the district are rendering good service to commuters. The profitability of service has increased by 120.33 per cent overtime.
The Study revealed that Mangalore Division of the KSRTC is incurring a loss of 138.4 paise per kilometre, whereas, the private buses are earning a profit of 37 paise per kilometre. 76 per cent of operators are not giving incentives of any sort and 96 per cent of them are not extending any leave facility to the crew.
Interestingly, all operators in the district are utilising outside finances to run their services. 84 per cent of the operators depend on banks and the rest 16 per cent on other sources.
As far as users’ perception is concerned, it was revealed that as many as 58 per cent of the daily travellers in the district prefer to travel by private buses and only 8 per cent went for State buses.
The study reveals that daily commuters prefer to travel by private buses as they think that the travel concession offered by them is more attractive than that offered by State buses.
It was also found that a large number of users are fully satisfied with the fare, safety, speed and comfort in the State bus operation while they are least satisfied with its frequency and regularity.
With regard to private buses, the users are highly satisfied with punctuality, frequency and regularity while they are dissatisfied with the fare, over-loading and safety parameters.
Out of the 400 users interviewed in the district, 127 opined that breakdowns are high in the public sector buses and 92 opine that breakdowns are found in both public sector and private sector buses. 208 users opined that private buses are more accident-prone. Yet another finding of the study is that 49 per cent of travellers view that courteous service is being rendered by crew of the private sector.