RTO has no money to put up share-a-cab boards

Despite generating Rs 3,500 crore in revenue, department does not have money to even erect boards at stands because of low fund allocation, say officials

GENERATING higher-than-average revenue, it seems, does not entitle a department to be allocated enough funds for its functioning by the state government.

A case in point is the Road Transport department, which, despite being the third-highest revenue-generating department in the state (see box), is struggling to find funds to even erect boards for its new share-a-cab and share-a-rickshaw programmes.


The RTO office at Tardeo is in a pathetic condition

The situation is so bad, say officials in the department, that a senior officer actually asked a VIP number applicant to do up his office instead of giving him a bribe.

For the common man, the cash crunch has led to a long delay in the inauguration of various share-a-cab and share-an-auto routes, including 40 in Andheri alone.

"The funds provided for the running of the department, which generates sizeable revenue for the state, are pitiable.

Most of the offices are in a very bad condition and have only the bare minimum facilities if that for officials and citizens who go there with work.
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"We don't have money even to put up boards for the share auto, taxi programme, which has delayed the inauguration of many routes," said an RTO official.

"Erecting boards announcing share-an-auto routes costs us anywhere between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000. The boards have to be erected at both the origin and the destination of the route," he added.

Under the Andheri RTO, as many as 80 share-an-auto routes were approved, of which only 40 are functional.
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"Even in the 40 operational routes, boards for around 25 stands were sponsored by Maharashtra Gas Limited and 10 by the unions," the official said.

Under the jurisdiction of the Wadala RTO, 47 routes are functional but the inauguration of 30 new routes is held up because of the lack of money for boards.

Transport Commissioner DJ Jadhav was not available for comment despite repeated attempts.

Money Churner
Only the Sales Tax and State Excise departments beat the Road Transport department in terms of revenue generation. The department contributed Rs 3,500 crore to the state exchequer last year and is u00a0all set to clock a revenue of u00a0Rs 4,000 crore this fiscal, the official said.