Road Transport Services
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ROAD TRANSPORT SERVICES DEMAND NO. 39 & 57 2001 - 2002 POLICY NOTE 1.0 Introduction The development of transport facilities in the State is an essential factor for improving the infrastructure for fuelling the development of State Economy. The State Transport Undertakings (STUs) in Tamilnadu play a vital role in this task by providing the necessary transport facilities, through a variety of services such as Town, Mofussil, Ghat and Express Services, and also Inter-State services to neighbouring States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Pondicherry. The Transport Department is mainly dealing with the operational aspects of the nationalised bus transport system in the State. Organisations like the Tamilnadu Transport Development Finance Corporation Ltd, the Pallavan Transport Consultancy Services Ltd, the Institute of Road Transport, the Tamilnadu State Transport Corporation Employees' Pension Trust, Post-retirement benefit fund and Motor Vehicles Maintenance Department come under the administrative control of this Department. 2. NATIONALISATION 2.1 Chronicle of events in Nationalisation: 1948 - The Nationalisation of passenger road transport in Tamil Nadu commenced soon after independence with the take over of all routes in Chennai city in 1948. 1959 - Based on the policy then taken that the Government should exclusively operate all routes exceeding 120 miles, buses were introduced in long distance routes by erstwhile Tamil Nadu State Transport Department in 1959. 1967 - The Government decided to nationalise (i) All routes of 75 miles (120 KM) and above, both ordinary and express services, (ii) All routes radiating from or terminating in Madras City irrespective of length, and (iii) All routes in Kanyakumari District including those radiating or terminating in the District. 1971 - Tamil Nadu Fleet Operators Stage Carriages (Acquisition) Act was enacted by which all the routes, buses, workshops and the staff of the five fleet operators owning 50 permits and above were acquired and transferred to three Transport Corporations viz. Pandiyan Roadways Corporation, Cheran Transport Corporation and Cholan Roadways Corporation. 1973- The Government passed the Tamilnadu Stage Carriages and Contract Carriages (Acquisition) Act, 1973. The Act provided for nationalisation of passenger transport District by District, in a period of five years starting from the District, which had the smallest fleet and progressing in the ascending order of fleet strength of the Districts. The first District to be fully nationalised under this Act was The Nilgiris. This Act was held ultra vires by the High Court, but subsequently held as valid by the Supreme Court of India in the year 1983. 1984 - Keeping in view the Supreme Court’s orders and the priorities of the State Government and to carry out the Government’s declared objective of implementing the programme of Nationalisation in a phased manner, the Government legislated an Act in 1984 amending the Act of 1973. By this, the small operators holding upto five permits were exempted from the provisions of Act of 1973 and the private operators were allowed to continue to get fresh permits and renew their existing permits on the date of expiry. It was, however, considered difficult for the State Transport Undertakings to step into all the routes to be vacated by the private operators within 3 or 4 years after fulfilling their commitment to the normal augmentation and replacement programmes. The Government therefore, decided to resort to displacement of private operators in a phased programme. 1990 - The Government, however, wanted to restore the Nationalisation Act of 1973 to its original form and in 1990 introduced the Tamilnadu Stage Carriages and Contract Carriages (Acquisition) Amendment Bill 1990, which aimed at reversing the amendments proposed to the principal Act during 1984 and completing the process of nationalisation in a period of ten years. It was decided, subsequently to withdraw the Bill of 1990, in view of the need to concentrate on the provision of bus facilities to the villages, which have a population of 1000 and above. 1992 -The Government brought out an enactment viz., Tamilnadu Motor Vehicles Special Provisions Act 1992 (Act 41/92). This Act facilitates renewal of permits and variation of permits of private operators on approved scheme routes. This Act, however, prohibits the grant of new permits to the private operators on approved scheme routes. 1995 - The Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicles (Special Provisions) Rules to the said Act were framed in May 1995. The rules were amended in January 1996. The amended rule enabled the small private stage carriage operators to renew their permits and to apply for varying the conditions of permit. 1996 -The Government enacted Tamilnadu Motor Vehicles Special Provision (Cancellation of variation of condition of permit) Act 1996. This Act provided for restoration of status quo prior to 24.01.1996. The Government also published Area Schemes for each District, other than the Districts of Chennai, Kanyakumari and the Nilgiris, which were already covered by area schemes. According to the Area schemes, only the State Transport Undertakings can operate stage carriages on new routes in the Districts notified by the scheme. STATE TRANSPORT CORPORATIONS 3.1 The Nationalised Transport activities, which were under the State Transport Department till 1971, began to be entrusted to the various Transport Corporations registered under the Companies Act. The Government appointed Expert Committees to examine in-depth, the structure and performance of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporations and give suitable measures for improvement, on two occasions, first in 1976 (Pattabiraman Committee) and then again in 1990 (Thillainayagam Committee). The Pattabiraman Committee (1976) advocated formation of district-wise corporation for all the Districts, which was accepted by the Government, in principle. Both the Committees recommended continuance of multi corporate nature of bus transport in Tamil Nadu in view of the greater advantage derived from such a set-up as compared to a monolithic structure. The Thillainayagam Committee (1990) recommended, keeping in mind flexibility, efficiency and responsiveness to public needs, that the optimal size of a Transport Corporation could be around 750 buses and in any case not to exceed 1200. The Government accepted all these views. As on date, there are 19 transport corporations in the State. The dates from which the Corporations were formed, their principal area of operation etc are indicated below: Fleet Strength as on Sl. Name of the Date of Principal area of 30.06.2001 No Corporation Formation operation (including spare buses) Metropolitan Transport Chennai Corporation. Metropolitan 1 (Chennai) Ltd 01.01.72 2818 area Chennai State Express Transport Corporation Entire State 2 01.04.80 706 (Tamil Nadu Of Tamil Nadu Dn.I) Ltd. Chennai State Express Transport Corporation 3 27.01.94 Inter State 203 (Tamil Nadu. Dn.II) Ltd. Chennai Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Villupuram & 4 16.01.75 1077 (Villupuram Cuddalore Districts Division I) Ltd., Villupuram Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Vellore & 5 (Villupuram 01.12.82 Thiruvannamalai 836 Division II) Ltd., Districts Vellore Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (Villupuram Division III) Ltd., Kanchipuram & 6 Kanchipuram 01.04.92 762 Thiruvallur Districts Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Salem/Namakkal 7 15.02.73 945 (Salem Division Districts I) Ltd., Salem Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Dharmapuri 8 (Salem Division 01.04.87 685 II) Ltd., District Dharmapuri Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Coimbatore and 9 01.03.72 1587 (Coimbatore the Nilgiris Districts Division I) Ltd., Coimbatore Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation 10 01.04.83 Erode District 930 (Coimbatore Division II) Ltd., Erode Tamil Nadu State Transport Thanjavur, Corporation (Kumbakonam 11 01.03.72 Nagapattinam & 944 Division I) Ltd., Thiruvarur Districts Kumbakonam Tamil Nadu State Transport Thiruchirapalli, Corporation Karur & 12 (Kumbakonam 01.04.85 978 Perambalur Division II) Ltd., districts Thiruchirappalli Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Sivaganga & 13 (Kumbakonam 01.04.83 Ramanathapuram 590 Division III) Districts Ltd., Karaikudi Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation 14 (Kumbakonam 16.03.96 Pudukottai District 356 Division IV) Ltd., Pudukkottai Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation 15 17.01.72 Madurai District 933 (Madurai Division I) Ltd., Madurai Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Tirunelveli & 16 (Madurai 01.01.74 Thoothukudi 830 Division II) Ltd., Districts Tirunelveli Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Kanyakumari 17 (Madurai 01.04.83 676 Division III) District Ltd., Nagercoil Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Dindigul, Theni 18 (Madurai 01.04.86 726 Division IV) District Ltd., Dindigul Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Virudhunagar 19 (Madurai 01.05.97 368 Division V) Ltd., District Virudhunagar 3.2 Amalgamation of STUs: Amalgamations in respect of MTC-II with MTC-I and TNSTC (CBE.Dn.III) with TNSTC (CBE.Dn.I) have been completed with effect from 10.01.2001 and 07.11.2000 respectively. It is considered appropriate to merge the remaining 18 Corporations other than MTC into 6 Corporations to reduce the administrative overhead and avoid wasteful competition in the operation of services among the Corporations. In respect of amalgamation of SETC (Dn II) with SETC (Dn I), the draft amalgamation proposals have been sent to the Government of India for approval.