Standing banned in KSRTC luxury buses

Kochi: Passengers will not be allowed to travel standing in superfast, express and luxury services of the Kerala State Road Transport Corp (KSRTC), the High Court ruled on Tuesday.

A division bench of Chief Justice Antony Dominic, acting on a petition filed by a social organisation, upheld the demand that as per the Motor Vehicles Act passengers should not be allowed to travel while standing.

K.K. Divakaran, a leader of the CPI-M backed trade union of the KSRTC, said the order will sound the death knell for KSRTC.

"What should be noted is that the maximum revenue comes from superfast and express services as passengers are willing to stand and travel. No one asks any passenger to stand, it's done by their choice," said Divakaran, a former CPI-M legislator.

KSRTC has an accumulated loss of Rs 7,966 crore. It was only early this month, after the government pumped in money, that the 40,000 KSRTC pensioners got their monthly pension after a gap of almost six months.

With the court directive, the daily collection, the mainstay of the KSRTC, is going to get affected.