Thiruvananthapuram, July 29:
The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has terminated its partnership with a private courier operator after the arrangement failed to meet expectations, and is preparing to invite fresh tenders to revive the service. The corporation has also indicated that it may operate the courier network on its own if no suitable private agency comes forward.
KSRTC has directed its staff to stop accepting new courier bookings with immediate effect. Only consignments already booked under the existing system will be delivered before the current arrangement is formally wound up.
The courier service had been outsourced last year to Andhra Pradesh-based Synku Solutions as part of the corporation’s efforts to strengthen non-ticket revenue and improve operational efficiency. However, the partnership reportedly failed to generate the expected financial returns and was plagued by operational shortcomings.
According to sources, customers frequently complained about delays in parcel deliveries, affecting the reliability of a service that had long been regarded as one of KSRTC’s most dependable revenue-generating ventures. The repeated lapses not only affected customer confidence but also reduced the commercial viability of the project.
KSRTC is now expected to issue a fresh tender to identify a new operator capable of managing the service more efficiently. Officials said that if the tender process fails to attract suitable bidders, the corporation is prepared to restore the courier network under its own management, a model that had earlier proved successful.
The KSRTC courier service was once considered a major success story, leveraging the corporation’s extensive statewide bus network to transport parcels quickly and at competitive rates. It had earned a reputation as one of the transport utility’s most effective non-ticket revenue streams before being handed over to a private operator during the tenure of former Transport Minister K.B. Ganesh Kumar as part of a restructuring exercise.
The decision to end the contract also comes amid reports that employees engaged in the courier operations had not received salaries for several months, further highlighting the operational and financial difficulties that ultimately prompted KSRTC to terminate the partnership.
