The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is a state-owned road transportation company in the state of Karnataka in India. Corporation has the largest fleet of Volvo buses among state owned transport companies in India. It is wholly owned by the Government of Karnataka.
The state of Mysore, Mysore Government Road Transport Department (MGRTD) was inaugurated on 12 September 1948 with 120 buses. The transport department of The Mysore state is administrated until 1961. After the Government of Mysore was subsequently converted into an independent Corporation under Section 3 of the Road Transport Corporation Act, 1950 on 1st of August 1961, In 1961 after successfully converted into an independent corporation all assets and liabilities of MGRTD has transferred to MSRTC. In 1st of October 1961 Bangalore Transport Service [BTS] also merged with the MSRTC. In 1 November 1973 the Mysore state was renamed into Karnataka state, also 1 November 1973 MSRTC is rename into KSRTC. In August 1997, KSRTC was divided to form Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC). In November 1997, another new road transport corporation called North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) was formed to cater to the transportation needs of North Western parts of Karnataka. Later, the North Eastern Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NEKRTC) was also formed with its corporate office in Gulbarga.
Corporation has its Corporate office at Shanthi Nagar, Bangalore. Presently, excludes it’s subsidiary’s it covers seventeen Districts (Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Ramanagar, Kolar, Chickballapur, Tumkur, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Shivamogga, Mangaluru, Udupi, Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, Mysuru, Mandya, Chamarajnagar, Kodagu) in the State under its operational jurisdiction. It has totally 17 Divisions – 16 operating Divisions viz. Bengaluru Central, Ramanagar, Tumkur, Kolar, Chickballapur, Mysuru City, Mysuru Rural, Mandya, Chamarajnagar, Hassan, Chikkamagaluru, Mangaluru, Puttur, Davanagere ,Shivamogga,Chitradurga and 1 bus station division viz., KBS. 84 Depots, 166 Bus station, 4 Regional Workshops, 1 Central Training Institute, 2 Regional Training Institutes, 1 Printing Press and 1 Hospital. It has a workforce of about 37019 employees(excludes it’s subsidiary’s). It operates 26.65 lakh km daily holding a fleet of ‘8744(excludes it’s subsidiary’s) and it’s earns traffic revenue of Rs. 976.10 lakh lakh daily catering to 30.12 lakh passengers on an average(excludes it’s subsidiary’s). It stands 5th amongst STUs in the Nation by size(excludes it’s subsidiary’s).
Corporation services covers 92% villages in Karnataka(includes it’s subsidiary’s). KSRTC operates with a total fleet of 24,138 buses (KSRTC-8657, NEKRTC-4343, NWKRTC-4716, BMTC–6422). It transports, on an average, 74.57 lakh passengers per day. It also operates to the neighboring states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Goa and Kerala. KSRTC was the first state transport corporation to introduce VolvoB7RLE low floor city buses in India in 2005. At present, KSRTC operates TATA, Ashok Leyland, Eicher Motors are More, Also Volvo, Mercedes Benz, Scania buses under the A/C (Airavat) services (Airavat means the mythical white elephant in Kannada).
