PANAJI
The 'Mhaji Bus' scheme by which the State-owned public transporter Kadamba Transport Corporation Limited, will take on board under a lease formula privately owned buses, was approved by the State Cabinet on Wednesday.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant announced the decision to approve the scheme.
He said, the scheme wherein private buses will be taken on lease by KTCL, will initially be implemented on four trunk routes -- Canacona-Panaji, Pernem-Panaji, Savordem-Panaji and another.
Sawant said, all private buses operating on these selected routes will be under the control of the KTCL as per the scheme and a fixed amount will be paid to the private bus owners, which will be derived from the number of kilometers the particular bus has covered.
The formula for payments to the private bus owners will be modified as per the fluctuations in fuel prices periodically, he added.
Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho, meanwhile, said, the 'Mhaji Bus' scheme will be tried out on these four trunk routes and then implemented on other routes in the State.
He said, the buses hired from private operators will have conductors who are staffers of the KTCL but the drivers will be provided by the owners.
Godinho also said, that based on the experience and practicalities involved, the scheme will be modified taking into account the response before making it applicable in the rest of the State.
The transport minister also said that buses which will be hired will be examined for the travel-worthiness, hygiene factor and road-worthiness.
"If need be, private bus owners will be given subsidy to replace their old buses with new ones," Godinho said.
Under the 'Mhaji Bus' scheme, the government is also planning to make available timings of all trips on the routes available digitally to the travellers, he added.
Meanwhile, it was unclear whether the scheme has been accepted by private bus operators as there were reports that some of their associations had rejected the scheme which was first proposed when the pandemic hit the public transport business badly.
The government however claims that it is engaging with the private bus operators and many of them have already agreed and are on board.
Meanwhile, in another Cabinet decision, the government will conduct a survey to study the impact of various government schemes and programmes on the lives of the people of Goa by spending Rs 33 lakh.
State Cabinet today granted its nod to engage M/s Corporate Chanakya Services Pvt Ltd from New Delhi as consultant for a period of six months to conduct the survey and submit the report.
