FINAL CONSULTANCY REPORT KSRTC

10 of January 2020

WISHING YOU  and your team A HAPPY NEW YEAR

BACKGROUND OF THIS MATTER.

In 2017 I had sent an article I had written about  KERALA STATE ROAD TRANSPORT CORPORATION to the then Chief Secretary Smt. Nalini Netto on reading in the news papers that  KSRTC is in  economic difficulties. (A copy of this article is enclosed).Thereafter I got a call from Shri K R Jyothilal IAS secretary to the dept of Transport Govt. of Kerala with whom I was in touch eversince and he referred the issue to Shri M P Dinesh,IPS(Rtd)  CMD KSRTC with whom I had some interactions.

Based on the contents of the article  I had developed a PPT presentation which was sent to both the Transport Secretary and CMD-KSRTC. Some key excerpts from the PPT are being discussed here which would provide inputs to further fine tune  KSRTC. Three hard copies of the condensed PPT are being enclosed.

At the outset let me emphasize that KSRTC is a very well run organization with high quality manpower and administrative stability and order and also very punctual in its operations for which your team has to be congratulated.

However as an end-user of KSRTC some of my observations I discuss below and with this I would  like to close this matter that was commenced in 2017 .Kindly thank Shri K R  Jyothilal and Shri M P Dinesh for having interacted with me.

·       Slide 1 and 2 discuss the concept of a dysfunctional organization which simply means feedback from end-users are not periodically collected to orient Operations.

·       Slide  3  provides a simple format to collect and assimilate customer feed back.This can be collected from commuters through some formal procedure from key Bus stations. The call centers also could contact commuters on their mobile phones for their inputs.Such inputs can be used to take any corrective actions if needed.

·       Slide 4 and 5  shows a VISION and MISSION statement developed by me. There is already a VISION and MISSION statement of KSRTC on the web site but does not touch upon Economic side of the organization. The VISION and MISSION statement of KSRTC could be made more conspicuous on the web site and also presented in the Malayalam language. VISION and MISSION statement could be displayed( using some standard format of background and scripting) across all bus stations and other depots of KSRTC in English and Malayalam languages.

·       Slide 6 talks about training for staff and human resources initiatives. Two hours of classroom training could be instituted for staff every year and training videos could be sent by email and whatsapp to staff to go through. Training videos could be uploaded on the web site.

·       Slide 7 talks about using the Japanese concept of Quality Circles at Bus stations. Quality Circles are group of four to five people drawn from different domains who meet formally or informally periodically to discuss events of the preceding period, very often a month. Quality Circles must make at least one improvement every month or even once in three months. Some chair in the bus station might need welding and the Circle could talk to the concerned department and get it welded. Any innovative form of improvement however small could be instituted periodically. One improvement per month per station results in twelve improvement a year and multiplied by 100 stations is 1200 improvements. Such activities improve organizational stature. Japanese used to call such activities KAIZEN.

·       Some strategic partnership with the postal department could be considered  to route some of their cargo through KSRTC.

·       Slide 10,11,12and 13 talk about the logo of KSRTC. The present logo of KSRTC is shown in slide 11. Slide 12 shows an improvised version showing a road encrypted in it. Such a logo positions KSRTC more as a transport corporation in the minds of the public.Telengana State Road Corporarion has such a logo. The slide 13 shows a further improved  logo with  a punch line “We Move The State”. Such activities come under the gamut of “Brand Management” which makes the organization perfectly positioned in the mind of stake holders and helps in Competitive Advantage.

·       KARNATAKA STATE ROAD TRANSPORT CORPORATION has done a good job at branding all its classes of buses.To my observation Kerala SRTC is also doing the same. Slide 14 shows Ambari of Karnataka SRTC. Slide 15 shows the green colour bus of Kerala SRTC which your drivers tell me are of TATA_BENZ make. It is a fantastic bus and I call this “the poor mans VOLVO”.This bus is excellent for night travel except for the engine noise prevents commuters from getting a good night’s sleep. Once passengers enter the bus some innovative technique like a screen should shield the drivers cabin reducing engine noise from entering the passenger area.This class of buses could be branded with some distinct brand name. Slide 16 shows the red colour Kerala SRTC bus which also could be given some distinct brand name and small logo. Karnataka has a bus RAJAHAMSA which has a small logo attatched to it.RAJAHAMSA in Kannada means the Swan of the King.

·        Slide 17 addresses the factors that influence Travel Quality. If buses are making unacceptable vibration during travel some efforts must be made to control it and bring it under limits or even jerks and noise. Some ingenuous extra fittings could be considered to reduce such occurrences.

:Shri.  TOM JOSE, IAS

CHIEF SECRETARY- GOVERNMENT OF KERALA

SECRETARIAT

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

CALICUTCITY:Kapad beach near Kozhikode Calicut

Kappad beach is the exact location they say where Vasco Da Gama touched the Indian soil after a nine month voyage from Portugual in 1498 (May 20 1498) landing at the beach with a reasonable crowd from his three sea carriers.

Kappad is some eighteen kilometers or so from the Kozhikode (Calicut) town.It would be ideal to take one of those buses going to Telicherry and alight at a point called Pookad and hire local conveyance to this point.

There is a Monument erected here to commemorate this journey and the step taken by Vasco Da Gama. The monument as of  now is few meters inland the sea having withdrawn from the land considerably over the last few centuries and this monument is now set adjacent to a housing locality.The beach is worth visiting and the sea and its vast expanse can be felt at this place.

Few hundred meters to the North of this point is another beach with a large rocky formation and some like to visit this place and feel the Sea from this rock.

K R JYOTHILAL I A S

K R JYOTHILAL  Transport Secretary to Govt. of Kerala...a Chemical Engineering graduate from IIT Madras Iam told.I used to talk to him often regarding a Quality Enhancement Program at KSRTC.

M P DINESH IPS

M P DINESH IPS...Managing Director of  KERALA STATE ROAD TRANSPORT CORPORATION..I have spoken to him regarding an consultancy activity at KSRTC .Iam told he was earlier Police Commissioner  of Cochin city 

MOHAN AND GOPAL BUILDING

IN 1971 we as a family used to live in Gopal Building an housing complex with some eight or so small but elegant houses owned by a man by name Gopal.We stayed here for nine months in all and we moved into this house because it would be closer to School.In the rain my mother with her two sons; me and my younger brother would many times return from the ITI hospital after some treatment.It was a cosy house facing eastwards and the early morning Sun blazing straight into our eyes as Children.In 1971 there was a war with our neighbour and a special siren would ooze out of the ITI factory and the Police would ask us to shut the lights because ITI complex could be a target of the enemy.This was  a frightening thing for me as a child.This house brought us good luck as thereafter we moved into our own place of residence.

Living close to this house was a lad by name MOHAN..who was my senior at the Lowry Memorial High School and an Brahmin by descent and my mother had some special affection for him.There was something bizarre about this lad..he had lost his lower left foot when he was just four years of age and was sentenced to an artificial foot ever after in spite of which he was still bubbly and gleaming always.How did he loose his Limb.In an accident in front of the Lowry Memorial School upon crossing the whitefeild road to enter the school.In his own words he described to me at times how he was dragged by the truck a reasonable stretch on the road.

Much later we lost track of Mohan....but he later became very successful I was told at some form of business.The greatness of this lad is that for a reasonable period of time he used to come searching for my mother and our family once every year and discuss old times with great feeling and nostalgia.

Mohan if you are reading this from anywhere around the World just get in touch in some form.It would be splendid.

FEET

FINGER MARKS OF SMALLER BOY OR ACCOMPLICE OF THE ACCUSED PHOTOGRAPHED ONE DAY AFTER THE INCIDENT

FEET

THE ACTUAL PRINT OF THE FEET ON THE DUST OF THE TABLE