The Hindu Business Line : Time slots for buses make journey safer

Before understanding this enterprise model, one should know about functioning of public transport system in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts of coastal Karnataka.

Private operators, who operate nearly 2,300 buses every day, dominate the public transport system in these districts. There is a private bus every two minutes from Mangalore towards Udupi and vice versa.

However, scant regard for maintaining time gap between two buses on the same route caused many accidents on Mangalore-Udupi sector .

According to Mr P. Bhaskara Salian, General Secretary of Canara Bus Operators' Association, a major accident at Haleyangadi in Dakshina Kannada district on Mangalore-Udupi sector three years ago made the association to think about a viable time management system.

In this system, each bus is assigned time slots to reach its scheduled stops before proceeding towards its destination. If a bus leaves Mangalore at 10 a.m., it should reach Surathkal at 10.19 a.m. on its journey towards Udupi.

Timekeepers, appointed by the association at various points in these districts, supervise the arrival and departure of each bus on its journey towards its destination. If a bus reaches a point before the scheduled time, the timekeeper stops the bus and allows it to go at its stipulated time slot.

Mr Salian says that there was resistance to this system by a few bus drivers in the initial days. However, now every operator is obeying this system.

For the convenience of management, the association has divided these districts in to 13 divisions with each division having a committee of bus operators. Each committee has been assigned the task of appointing timekeepers in its area of operation.

The office-bearers of the committee are responsible for collecting money from the bus operators for paying salary to timekeepers and for other maintenance works.

A bus operator has to pay Rs 15 to the agent appointed by the committee of the division before leaving the starting point, say Mangalore. That bus can go up to Udupi and if it is proceeding towards Kundapur, then the operator has to pay Rs 15 to the agent there as it is entering Kundapur division maintained by another committee.

Apart from 13 divisions in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts, the association has divided Mangalore city into eight divisions for city buses.

The committee of the particular division fixes salary of the timekeepers depending on the density of buses in a particular route.

Timekeepers in the peak-traffic areas such as Mangalore and Udupi are paid a little more compared to those working in the other areas. The salary varies between Rs 100 and Rs 125 per timekeeper a day.

Annual expenditure of this enterprise is around Rs 5 lakh. Of this amount, around Rs 3.5 lakh is spent on 13 divisions of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts.

According Mr Salian, "It is a no-profit no-loss enterprise of the association. At the same time, nearly 250 youths are earning their livelihood from this system."

Mr Salian is happy about the fact that this system has helped in bringing down the number of accidents involving private buses in these districts.