KOCHI: Bringing smiles to thousands of bus commuters in the district, the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is planning to introduce 88 new mini bus services connecting rural regions of Ernakulam district.“Hopefully, within four months,” the authorities say.Once the project takes off, the small ‘short wheel base’ buses will start running in almost every nook and cranny of the district.Salim Rajan, Executive Director (Technical) in Thiruvananthapuram office said the propasal is in its final stage.“We have asked the KSRTC officials at Ernakulam to prepare a detailed report of the areas which are the most neglected in the district. The route will be finalised after going through the report. We shall then move into the second phase of the project,” he said.According to officials, the idea of the Rs 14-crore project was also initiated in the budget for making KSRTC one of the major operators in the transport sector.“At present, we stand at a 20:80 public bus-private bus ratio. Once, the project kicks off, it will be a fillip to the public transport system in some ways,” he said.The project was intended to increase the accessibility of the rural public to the city. “The interesting point about mini buses is that they would easily slide through narrowest of the roads. For the time being, we have identified areas such as the South Kadavanthara Road and Bolgatty Road covering the Vallarpadom area. Also, we aim to focus on areas beyond Aluva,” Ernakulam Zonal Officer P L Jose said.The project proposed in the previous Kerala budget, has started taking shape since the past few months. “There were many other priorities we were entitled to.”Just like the newly introduced ‘Rajdhani’ bus service in Thiruvananthapuram, mini buses in Kochi may possibly get a new name and will be painted in different colours, Jose said.The timings will be fixed in such a way that one or two services will be running in both directions at the same time, officials said.
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