Keonjhar: Private bus owners in Keonjhar district are incurring heavy losses due to the lockdown restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the pandemic coronavirus. A large number of owners have decided to keep their vehicles off the road. The few who were operating their buses are shelling money out of their own pockets.
The daily expense in running a bus on the Keonjhar-Bhadrak route is approximately Rs 6,000 per day. Out of the total amount, close to Rs 5,000 is spent on procuring diesel only. The rest is for the staff engaged in running the bus
The fare for a one-way ticket is Rs 130. With social distancing being strictly implemented, passengers are not allowed to stand. Also the number of travellers has decreased due to the lockdown. Hence there is no earning at all, said a conductor working on the route.
Buses plying on the Keonjhar-Bhubaneswar route are also facing the same predicament. Many vehicles these days do not complete the entire journey due to paucity of passengers. There are two private buses that operate on the Kolkata route. The staff said the number of passengers has substantially decreased. “Only if we get enough passengers on the return trip, we earn some money,” a staff of one of the vehicles informed.
Hence the owners are in a huge soup. They have to repay bank loans. Then there are the bus permit fees and insurance premiums that have to be paid also. With virtually no income and profit, most of the owners have decided to keep their vehicles off the road.
Some persons involved in the operation of the bus services noted that people are reluctant to travel in public transport due to the coronavirus outbreak. They said that most people these days prefer to go from one place to another in two or four-wheelers.
PNN