Karnataka’s state-owned transport utility – the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) – is stepping into the logistics sector, sensing a great business opportunity there, Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy said. The corporation is planning to begin with 20 trucks in the first phase and will kick off the business on December 10.
The KSRTC is hoping to earn Rs 100 crore in income per year through its logistics business, Reddy said. Each truck will cost the corporation about Rs 17.3 lakh, sources in the KSRTC said.
Earlier, the KSRTC used to award the luggage space (boot space) in its 8000 buses to a private contractor who would in turn charge a fee on customers using the space. This was used to earn Rs 3 crore a year, said the minister. “For the first time, last year, the transport utility ended the practice and started booking the space itself through a network of agents who would get 20% commission for booking parcels. In one year, the revenue jumped from Rs 3 crore to Rs 13 crore,” he added.
The contract with the network will expire soon, and the KSRTC’s cargo services will be fully run by its new fleet, sources in the corporation said. “This is an effort to turn the loss-making body towards profitability,” they added. The KSRTC earned around Rs 3,349 crore in traffic revenue in 2022, incurring a loss of Rs 93 crore.
While there is no fixed timeline for the launch of the second phase of the project, sources said it will happen depending on when the first phase has become sufficiently profitable.