KSRTC to engage housekeeping services to clean buses daily, vacuum cleaners for passenger seats

The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) will now engage housekeeping agencies to clean buses daily. Bids have been invited from societies, partnership firms, startups, or any entity engaged in housekeeping activity to clean KSRTC and KSRTC-Swift buses plying in the state.

KSRTC staff have often faced flak for the poor upkeep of buses. The corporation has a total of 5,509 buses, 2,934 ordinary buses and 1,149 fast passenger buses occupying a lion's share of the fleet. The contractor shall have to provide sufficient staff in each depot 24x7 to clean the buses without interrupting services.

Each bus shall be provided with a checklist and must be cleaned according to the checklist. The contractor shall wash and clean all the buses provided by the depot authorities on a daily basis. Bus washing will be done by installing machinery of sufficient capacity in depot premises with all standard equipment, such as vacuum cleaners, glass cleaning kits, etc., for washing and cleaning buses up to 14.7 meters in length and 4 meters in height.

As per the conditions, the bus should be fully cleaned inside and out. The floor should be washed and cleaned using a dry/wet vacuum cleaner.

 Window and windshield glass should be washed using a glass cleaning agent, and they should be stain-free after cleaning. The scope of work mandates that the passenger seat and backrest be cleaned and dried using a vacuum cleaner or compressed air to be stain-free and neat.

All stickers or pamphlets other than advertisements authorized by KSRTC or KSRTC—SWIFT Ltd will be removed while the bus is being washed and cleaned outside and inside. According to the conditions, no bus should be found dirty before being put into service after cleaning.

The contractor has to maintain adequate specified manpower, a supervisor, washing records, and spares at each location. They have to keep operations in service on all days, maintain all machine tools and equipment at their own cost, and bear the cost of all consumables.

Proper cleaning and washing of KSRTC buses has always been difficult for the KSRTC staff. In 2022, the KSRTC even issued a circular mandating regular cleaning of Superfast, Fast, and City Circular buses once every two days. The unit officers were instructed to delegate washing staff to ensure the cleaning of buses in service. However, the circular was often ignored.