PPP in Urban Bus Transport is disaster in Odisha

PPP in Urban Bus  Transport  is  disaster  in Odisha

·  Rs. 185  crores  spent for  purchasing 185  buses for  town bus  services  in 2010 and 2014.

·  The  cost  of  purchase   per  bus  is  Rs. 1 crore.

·  Dream Team Sahara, a private body  was  given  responsibility  for management  of bus.

·  Within seven years  of  bus service, only  Rs. 8.5  crore  revenue  received  by Govt.  from Town bus  service  against  investment  of  Rs. 185  crores.

·  Within seven years, all 180  buses  are  defunct  lying in deserted locations of Bhubaneswar  and Cuttack. Only  five buses  are  in working  condition.

Is  it  the  result  of PPP ?

 Dear  friends

Few days  back, mass media   carried  news about defunct  of number  of town buses lying in deserted  places  of  Bhubaneswar  and Cuttack. This  news  prompted  me  to file RTI dated 5.7.19   to get  the  information about   Town Bus service  managed  under  BPTCL ( Bhubaneswar Puri Transport  Corporation Limited), no. of buses purchased, Private  operators  managing  the bus route  and plying  of buses etc.  . It  needs  to be mentioned here  that  the present “Mo Bus Yojana”  is  managed  by  CRUT ( Capital Region Urban Transport), another  company  registered  in 2018  under  the Companies  Act  by Govt. of Odisha. It is  replica  or  new Avatar of  BPTCL.

   BPTCL, a State  Govt.-undertaking  Company registered  under  the  companies  Act  in 2010 was  the sole public transport provider for Bhubaneswar & Puri city. It was primarily covering Bhubaneswar city and was providing connectivity to other cities like Cuttack, Puri, Jatni and Khurda. It was running all the bus operation in partnership with PPP partner Dream Team Sahara (DTS), Bhubaneswar.

 PPP ( Public-Private-Partnership)  is buzzword in  circle  of  state  administration  envisaged  to engage  private  players  for  service delivery  to the people. It prepares a  long-term contract between a private party and a government entity, for providing a public asset or service, in which the private party bears significant risk and management responsibility, and remuneration is linked to performance. Keeping PPP  in view, It  is  thought  that Govt.  might  have   engaged  Dream Team Sahara , a private  body  for  effective management  of town bus service  in  Bhubaneswar  and other  cities .

The reply  of the PIO  dated 30.7.19 is as follows.

1.       Details  of  Bus  purchased  by  BPTCL for urban transport  services ( Town Bus ) as  follows.

Sl. No	Particulars	Year 2010 (  For 125  buses)	Year  2014 ( For  60  buses)
1	Details of  fund spent  for the  purchase  of bus	Rs. 17.00  crores	Rs. 18.29 crores
2	Name  of the Company which  supplied the buses	Tata Motors Rs. 10.00  crores	Tata Motors
		Swaraj Mazda Rs. 7.00  Crores

2.       Total  no. of  type of buses   purchased  used  for  town bus  service is as follows.

Sl. No.	Type of buses	Total No.
1	Swaraj Mazda	70
2	Tata Standard Buses	70
3	TATA A/C Standard Buses	12
4	TATA MIDI Buses	33
Total		185

3.       Details  of revenue  generated  from the  Town bus  service   deposited  by Dream Team  Sahara  from 2010-11  to  2017-18

Year  wise	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18
Revenue generated from bus service	23,191,594.00	1,34,12,041.00	27,29,023.00	32,80,821.00	1,59,01,777.00	1,68,83,902.00	66,49,610.00	45,12,960.00
Compensation paid  to the  companies  for management  of bus  against  the loss  suffered  by them	NIL	NIL	NIL	NIL	NIL	NIL	NIL	NIL

Total amount  of revenue  received  within the period of  8 years  is  Rs. 8, 65,61,723.00

4.       What  is the  present  condition of the  Bus

The  PIO  has  replied  that all  180  no. of buses  are defunct and  only five  buses  having  no. OD-02-Q-4902, OD-02-Q-4904, OD-02-Q-9411, OD-02-Q-9413, OD-02-Q-9414  are  plying  on roads.

5.       The  PIO  has  not  provided  copy  of agreement  signed  with Dream team Sahara  for  management  of  bus service. On 12.8.19., the  first  appeal has been  filed   to the  First Appellate  Authority  for  supply  of the  information.

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date – 13.8.19