Kerala State Road Transport Corporation

Not to be confused with Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation.

Kerala State Road Transport Corporation
KSRTC
Native name
കെ.എസ്.ആർ.ടി.സി
FormerlyTravancore State Transport Department (TSTD) (1938 - 1965)
Company typePublic
Founded
  • 20 February 1938; 86 years ago (1938-02-20)
    as Travancore State Transport Department (TSTD)
  • 1 April 1965; 59 years ago (1965-04-01)
    as Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC)
FounderChithira Thirunal Balarama Varma
HeadquartersS-301, 3rd Floor, South Block, Government Secretariat, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
Areas served
Kerala
Tamil Nadu
Karnataka
Mahe District of Puducherry
Services
  • Bus transport
  • Courier service
RevenueIncrease ₹2,165.156 crore (US$260 million)[1][2] (2015–16)
Decrease ₹−738.768 crore (US$−89 million) (2015–16)
OwnerGovernment of Kerala
SubsidiariesKerala Urban Road Transport Corporation (KURTC)
KSRTC SWIFT
Websitekeralartc.com
Footnotes / references
KSRTC

Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC)[3][4] is a state-owned road transport corporation in the Indian state of Kerala. It is one of the country's oldest state-run public bus transport services.[5] The corporation is divided into three zones (South, Central and North), and its headquarters is in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. Daily scheduled service has increased from 1,500,000 kilometres (930,000 mi) to 1,700,000 kilometres (1,100,000 mi),[6] using 5400 buses on 4500 routes.[7] The corporation transports an average of 3.545 million commuters per day.

The Kerala Urban Road Transport Corporation (KURTC) was formed under KRTC in 2015 to manage affairs related to urban transportation.[8] It was inaugurated on 12 April 2015 at Thevara.[9] On 9 November 2021, a legally independent company called KSRTC SWIFT was formed to operate the long-distance buses of the Kerala Road Transport Corporation for a period of 10 years with an aim overcome the financial crisis faced by the corporation.[10]

In June 2021, Kerala SRTC was awarded the acronym KSRTC by the Controller General of Patents Designs and Trade Marks, which is part of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India when Kerala filed a case against Karnataka SRTC in response to a legal notice by the Karnataka SRTC to stop using the acronym KSRTC.[11][12]

Small bus on a narrow road
KSRTC Venad Bus at Vagamon
  1. ^ "How poor operational efficiency bleeds India's public bus transport undertakings". Hindustan Times. 27 October 2017.
  2. ^ "Key Financial Ratios of SRTUs during March 2015 and March 2016". Open Government Data (OGD) Platform India. 19 January 2018.
  3. ^ KSRTC is a registered trademark
  4. ^ "Two states, one brand: how Kerala won battle against Karnataka for KSRTC trademark". The Indian Express. 5 June 2021. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  5. ^ PRADEEP, K. (19 February 2014). "When the buses drove in". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
  6. ^ "All about KSRTC". Keralartc.com. Archived from the original on 25 June 2018. Retrieved 16 June 2018.
  7. ^ At present the corporation has 5400 buses running on 4500 schedules. http://www.keralartc.com/html/aboutus.html Archived 25 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Chandran 2018, p. 422.
  9. ^ Chandran 2018, p. 423.
  10. ^ "K-SWIFT will save ailing KSRTC, says MD Biju Prabhakar". English.Mathrubhumi. 17 January 2021. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  11. ^ Devaiah BP, Darshan; Philip, Shaju (5 June 2021). "Two states, one brand: how Kerala won battle against Karnataka for KSRTC trademark". The Indian Express. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
  12. ^ Ch, Leela Madhuri (15 November 2021). "The KSRTC conflict : who gets the trademark". iPleaders. Retrieved 18 August 2024.