Kozhikode: Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) chief Tomin Thachankary has decided to go ahead with the revamp of bus schedules, ignoring opposition by CPI leader Panniyan Raveendran over the leasing of buses.

The chairman and managing director has officially informed all the unit heads and zonal heads to prepare the new schedule after converting all the shift duties to single duty. The report in this regard needs to be submitted before Sunday (Sept 9).

The CPI leader had alleged that Thachankary had plans to take commission from private parties while taking buses on lease. Reacting to this, the latter threatened Panniyan with legal action if he fails to provide enough proof to back up his allegations. However, the IPS officer is determined to go ahead with changes in the Corporation.

In the memorandum, Thachankary listed the expenses the Corporation bears on an average for a single duty (160 km). The total average expenses come to Rs 8,500, which comprises the salary of conductor and driver (Rs 2,500 each) as well as expenses for diesel (Rs 3,200) and tyre (Rs 300).

“The price of diesel has increased to Rs 77 per litre, which was only Rs 64 four months ago. Since our diesel consumption is around 4.65 lakh litres per month, the Corporation has to pay an extra Rs 18.13 crore for fuel. Government sanctions only Rs 20 crore per month, including the salary for the employees. To tackle such a crisis, we are forced to implement some useful changes immediately,” the memorandum reads.

Of the current 5,582 schedules, 629 are single duties (up to 8 hours), 1,967 are one-and-a-half duties (up to 12 hrs), 2,640 are double duties (up to 16 hrs), 81 are two-and-a-half duties (up to 20 hrs), 216 are three duties (up to 24 hrs) and 49 are above three duties (more than 24 hrs).

All the ordinary schedules, including limited stop ordinary, town-to-town ordinary are directed to be rescheduled into a seven-hour steering duty. Two spells of chain services would be considered as two single duties. If single duty schedules fail to collect Rs 8,500, the zonal offices should be informed at the earliest. From October, such services would be allowed to operate only with the permission of zonal office.