Marked fall in UPSRTC buses’ ridership, courtesy Covid fear

LUCKNOW: Despite the fact there is no ban on transport in the state in the ongoing ‘corona curfew’, the continuing fatal second wave of the pandemic has badly hit UP State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) buses ridership as most people are avoiding using public transport these days out of fear.

“This is true the deadly second wave of Covid-19 has hit our business cutting the ridership to around 50% since only those who have no other option are moving out and using the public transport these days,” UPSRTC managing director Dheeraj Sahu said. According to information sourced from the people dealing with the issue in the UPSRTC, the impact is not only on the ridership but also on number of buses operated and kilometres covered by them daily and hence also on revenue/income of the corporation. The fall started gradually after March as the pandemic started peaking.

The UPSRTC is currently operating only 6,000 buses against around 10,200 buses it operated in March and it has gradually cut operations to around 60% due to the decreasing demand for the public transport. It is revealed that these buses together would ply 36 lakh km every day in normal days but the coverage has now dropped to just 18 lakh km a day which is only 50% of the normal. “Similarly, on an average around 13 lakh passengers used to travel in UPSRTC buses everyday but this number has drastically come down to just 5 lakh a day,” said another official requesting anonymity. “We expect more decline in the ridership in days to come as the Covid spreads to rural areas too,” he added.

The fall in the ridership has also hit the UPSRTC’s daily income forcing it to find ways to pay timely salaries to the staff. “Since ridership and income have a direct relation, it is natural that around 50% decline in the passenger flow has hit the corporation’s income in the same proportion posing a big challenge,” the official said.

The UPSRTC was operating 2,500 buses to neighbouring states like Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar till last week when chief minister Yogi Adityanath ordered suspension of these operations to control the transmission of Sars-Cov-2 virus. “These inter-state operations alone contributed around Rs 125 crore to the UPSRTC exchequer every month,” the official said.

The decline in the ridership, according to him, was due to the ‘corona curfew’ in cities as well as passengers’ own choice of not using public transport as bus stations and buses are seen as potential places for the transmission of the deadly infection.