Goa: Kadamba Transport Corp incurs 64.86cr loss

Panaji, Aug 1: The state-owned Kadamba Transport Corporation Limited has incurred a cumulative loss of Rs 64.86 crore till last fiscal, as against Rs 35.72 crore five years ago.

''The corporation had incurred heavy losses due to low fleet utilisation, poor load factor, cancellation of schedules for want of buses/crew,'' according to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report for the year ended March 31.

The report, presented to the Goa Legislative Assembly here was made available to the media here yesterday.

The CAG, in its report, regretted that the cost per kilometer was higher than the earning per km in the last five years owing to under recovery of cost of operation due to non-revision of fares on time.

The report further pointed out that only 35 per cent of buses were less than four years old, as against the norm of 60 per cent prescribed by the Association of State Road Transport Undertakings (ASRTU).

It was also found that about 22 per cent of the fleet consisted of buses more than eight year old.

The mileage obtained from new tyres was very low compard to the all India average during the 2001-06 period of review. This, it said, had resulted in excess consumption/expenditure of Rs 33.90 lakh on tyres.

At the same time, the maintainance and repair expenditure rose from Rs 1.51 crore to Rs 2.28 crore due to over-aged fleet, even as delay in repairs and maintainance of buses at workshops/depots resulted in further loss of Rs 57.93 crore during the period.

The fleet utilisation of the corporation ranged between 78 to 82 per cent as against the all India average of 92.1 to 92 per cent in 2002-03 and 2003-04.

The load factor, on the other hand, decreased from 55.94 per cent in 2001-02 to 53.19 per cent in 2005-06 against the all-India average of 62.45 and 59.92 per cent in 2002-03 and 2003-04.

UNI