Plagued with staff shortage, KSRTC has been cancelling its services almost every day, and inconveniencing passengers.
But now its troubles and those of commuters may be over as it has almost completed the selection process of over 600 conductors and drivers for the Ernakulam region.
While conductors (temporary) are being recruited after over a year , it has been years since new drivers were appointed despite the many vacancies.
“The recruitment process of 327 conductors and 307 drivers is almost done and they are expected to join duty in two weeks.
This will help put a stop to daily cancellation of schedules which we are currently forced to resort to despite the available staff doing double-duty at times,” said zonal officer, Sebastian Thomas.
Each of the 18 depots under the Ernakulam zone has a shortage of 10 to 40 employees and on an average cancels four to five schedules every day, according to him.
Once the corporation got down to recruiting there was no shortage of candidates, however. “Over 800 candidates appeared for the interview for the conductors’ posts.
The practical tests have been completed for candidates for the drivers' posts and it only requires clearance from the head office to appoint them,” he added.
The new recruits are being mainly selected to fill up existing vacancies and are not meant to fill up posts for the new 100 Thiru-Kochi buses the region expects to get shortly.
“There is no official notification yet on when we’ll receive the new buses. We’ll have to recruit more staff when they arrive,” the officer said.