Punbus among 3 profitable public road transport entities

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 3

Notwithstanding competition from private players, the state road transport undertaking, Punbus, is among the three state road transport undertakings in the country to have registered a net profit in 2014-15, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

Of the total 46 state transport undertakings in the country, only three registered profit, the other two being Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.

The two other Punjab public road transport undertakings, namely PEPSU Road Transport Corporation and the Punjab Roadways are among the loss-making entities.

In May last year, the state government, in its submission to the Punjab and Haryana High Court, said there were 2,508 public and 3,543 private buses operating in Punjab. Despite the private players dominating the transport sector, the net profit registered by Punbus is a success story which can be replicated by other public transport undertakings.

Punbus registered a net profit of Rs2.4 crore in 2014-15. It registered a net profit in 2013-14 as well. PEPSU and the Punjab Roadways registered a net loss of Rs30.27 crore and Rs112.29 crore, respectively.

The management maintained that the introduction of new fleet and low-operating cost helped Punbus register profit. The other state transport undertakings are facing low staff productivity as well as ageing fleet.

The average age of Punbus fleet is seven years. A relatively new fleet results in low operating cost, including less consumption of diesel. The total fleet size of Punbus was 1,242 buses followed by PEPSU (931) and the Punjab Roadways (420) in 2014-15.

The employee cost of Punbus is 25.78 per cent as employees were recruited on contract, while it is 41.95 per cent in case of PEPSU and 74.33 per cent for the Punjab Roadways. Punbus registered second highest staff productivity at 128.2 km per staff per day in the country. Its vehicle productivity was 292 km per bus per day as compared 286.82 km of PEPSU and 193 km of the Punjab Roadways.