Hubballi: Technology upgradation in commercial shops' management system helped the North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) to overcome flaws and generate non-transport revenue hassle-free.
The NWKRTC has been operating its buses in Dharwad, Belagavi, Uttara Kannada, Haveri, Gadag and Bagalkot districts.
The corporation also has properties, such as depots, bus stations, workshops and offices, in these districts. Of these, the bus stations have been generating non-transport revenue to the corporation through shops, hotels, restaurants and other establishments located in the bus terminal.
The corporation has rented out as many as 2,175 shops in several bus stations in these six districts to generate non-transport revenue. They are generating around Rs 48 crore per year.
According to sources, the NWKRTC has a total of 2,600 shops, of which 425 shops are vacant, and the remaining 2,175 shops are rented out for bakeries, hotels, restaurants, shops, kiosks, and other purposes. While these shops are convenient for the passengers to buy necessary things in the bus stations, they are also generating non-transport revenue for the corporation.
Rent, tender and other processes of these shops were all managed manually by the accounts section of the corporation. Due to this manual process, the corporation was facing issues in generating the non-transport revenue from these shops due to delay in the payments of rent.
Even after the expiry of the tender, it used to take two to three months to call for fresh tenders and allot shops to shopkeepers. During the two or three months, the shops used to remain vacant, and the corporation was not getting any revenue from them.
To address all these issues, Managing Director Priyanga M came up with the Commercial Licence Management app to help both shopkeepers and the corporation manage rent with transparency.
NWKRTC Chief Traffic Manager (CTM) Vivekanand Vishwadnya said that earlier shopkeepers had to visit NWKRTC divisional offices to pay rent and now with the introduction of the app, they can pay online, and the app reminds the shopkeepers about the due date of rent. With the help of the new system, they can know the tender expiry date; hence, they have been calling the tenders in advance and allotting the shops to shopkeepers well in time.
"Earlier, we used to collect Rs 3 crore rent from these shopkeepers, but now, after the introduction of the Commercial Licence Management app, we have been collecting Rs 4 crore rent every month, thus generating non-transport revenue of Rs 48 crore per year," said Vivekanand Vishwadnya.