Facts about Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (ST Bus)

--- Source Information : Wikipedia --

Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), also referred to as MSRTC, or simply ST, is the state run bus service of Maharashtra, India with 16,000 buses which ferry 7 million (70 lakh) passengers daily on 17,000 routes. It is the third largest bus service provider in India (after APSRTC and TNSTC) and serves routes to towns and cities within Maharashtra and adjoining states. Apart from locations within the state of Maharashtra, the MSRTC service also covers destinations such as Ahmedabad and Surat (in Gujarat), Bangalore (in Karnataka), Goa and Indore (in Madhya Pradesh). It is one of the largest fleet owners in India. It also offers a facility for online booking of tickets for all 17000 routes.

History :

Early bus services in Maharashtra (then part of the states of Bombay, Madhya Pradesh and Hyderabad) were started in the early 1920s largely due to efforts of local entrepreneurs. With no regulatory laws governing public transportation services these services run in ad hoc manner. The Motor Vehicle Act of 1939 brought in amongst many other things, regulation of fares, standard routes and rules for governance and monitoring of public transportation providers. As a result of the act individual operators were asked to form a union on defined routes in a particular area. Bus schedules were set in, pick-up points, conductors, and fixed ticket prices were mandated.

Still passenger woes continued and then in 1948 Bombay State Government, started its own state sponsored road transport service called State Transport of Bombay. The first blue and silver-topped bus took off from Pune to Ahmednagar in 1948. In mean time, in 1950 the central government under the initiative of Morarji Desai the then home minister passed the Road Transport Corporation Act. This act delegated powers to states to form their individual road transport corporations, the central government would contribute up to a third of the establishment of such services. The Bombay State Road Transport Corporation (BSRTC) was formed following this, later on whose name was changed to Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation after the re-organization of the states.

Bus fleet :

MSRTC is one of the largest fleet owners in India, operating a fleet of approximately 16000 buses that ferry 7 million (70 lakh) passengers daily on 17,000 routes. The Ordinary, Parivartan, Asiad and City Buses are built at MSRTC's in-house workshops at Pune, Aurangabad, and Nagpur on Ashok Leyland and TATA chassis. These workshops produce as high as 2000 buses per annum on an average! The real secret of the buses built at MSRTC workshops lies in their safe and light-weight body structures with low on maintenance and cost effective design. This along with a regular and exhaustive periodic maintenance of MSRTC has resulted in huge profits for the corporation and comfort and safety to the passengers. The corporation has 9 Tyre Retreading Plants along with 32 Divisional Workshops and has evolved as one of the best State Transport service providers to the nation.

Trivia :

Mumbai - Bangalore is the longest running bus covering approximately 978 km. Mount Abu, Raipur, and Bangalore are the most Northern, Eastern, and Southern ends respectively reached by MSRTC bus service
Has the largest bus fleet in the world after London metro bus service
Before changing to trademark red color in 1967 the color of the buses was mostly blue and yellow.