Unrest deflates plans to revive road transport corporation

Sumit Hakhoo

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 19

The five-month-long unrest in the Kashmir valley has inflicted a devastating blow to the efforts of reviving the State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC), already on the verge of bankruptcy.

The corporation had suffered a revenue loss of Rs 5.25 crore during the period of violence. A total of 182 vehicles were damaged by stone-throwers which included 76 trucks, bringing the entire transport sector to a grinding halt.

A government report has revealed that the transport sector was the worst hit in 2016 with ‘miscreants’ preventing plying of commercial as well as private vehicles.

“The protests had the worst impact on the transport sector in the Kashmir valley. Loss of money due to the turmoil resulted in the non-payment of bank loans. The consecutive default in the repayment of loans for three months or more to the banks means an increase in the non-performing asset of the bank,” says the report.

There are 4,500 passenger buses, 3,853 taxis, 24,223 trucks, 1,86,477 private cars and 2,10,236 two-wheelers in the Kashmir valley. Even the Railways closed the service from Banihal to Baramulla during the turmoil. The report further states, “The protests and curfews made the vehicles immobile. The mechanical workshops, petrol pumps and service stations remained shut affecting the people connected with the sector.”

It is pertinent to mention here that the SRTC has suffered a huge revenue loss with the management facing repeated strikes from employees, including retired workers. In the past five years, the company was slowly increasing its revenue share but violence created problems towards achieving the goal set by the management. From a frontline service provider in Jammu and Kashmir a few decades ago, the SRTC is struggling for survival with its share in the transport sector falling to a dismal less than three per cent.