The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has suffered a loss of Rs 3,000 crore due to the ongoing Covid pandemic. Before the lockdown, MSRTC buses used to carry 65 lakh passengers daily, but today, that number has reduced to 13 lakh.
The per-day revenue has also dropped to Rs 7 crore from Rs 22 crore, which used to be clocked before the pandemic, said State Transport Minister Anil Parab on Monday.
Addressing mediapersons, Parab said despite the reduction in other expenditure, losses continued to mount due unavoidable expenses such as salaries, maintenance of buses and the redevelopment of MSRTC bus stands,
MSRTC only started operating buses with full capacity from September 20, but people were still avoiding travel, which is affecting revenues, he said.
Parab said MSRTC is also exploring other avenues for earning revenues such as transporting goods and setting up petrol pumps on its own land. Due to the decline in revenues, MSRTC had not paid salaries to its employees for the past three months.
However, the Minister also announced at the press conference that pending salaries for the last two months would be disbursed to all the employees before the Diwali festivities.
MSRTC is one of the largest government-owned transport undertakings in the county with a fleet of over 18,000 buses. In 1948, the first bus service was launched to connect Pune with Ahmednagar district.
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