Thiruvananthapuram: The debt-ridden KSRTC has also lost in the acre business, which was expected to be a disaster. On the basis of the High Court order, there is no benefit in the deal of dismantling old buses and selling them at higher prices. Even buses costing up to 80 lakhs got 3.5 lakh rupees.
The sale is through online auction. Changed frame and chassis including engine. Old tires and discs will be auctioned. So far, 473 old buses, including buses that were replaced out of service during the Covid-19 pandemic, have been sold at acreage prices. 10 out of 28 buses in Ernakulam Thevara, which were lying unused for years, were scrapped. A total of 418 units were sold in the first phase and 55 units in the second phase.
Most of the ones that were dismantled and sold were Jantum buses provided free of charge by the central government. An AC bus (Volvo) was priced at Rs 80 lakhs and a non-AC (Lyland) was priced at Rs 26-28 lakhs. 300 low floor buses arrived in 2010. 120 were AC. All these have been demolished.
The buses purchased from the Eenchaikal depot are dismantled at Chaka and transported by lorry. 3 lakh to 3.65 lakh rupees per bus. It was decided to sell 920 buses at acre price, but the remaining ones have been decided to be converted for shops on wheels. The decision to sell at Akrivila was avoided as more offers were received for the Shop on Wheels project. Most of the buses being scrapped and sold are more than 10 years old. There is no escape for the corporation even after injecting the seed. The only consolation is that the usable engine and other parts of the scrapped buses are being used by other buses as required.
G. Arun