MUMBAI: Maharashtra Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik on Wednesday announced a revival plan for loss-making divisions of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation. Under the strategy, each weak division will be assigned a senior “guardian officer” to monitor performance, with a focus on revenue growth, cost control, fuel efficiency and administrative discipline. Monthly review meetings will track progress and corrective measures.
The move comes after the Transport Department found that the MSRTC incurred a loss of ₹536 crore during the financial year 2025–26. In April 2026 alone, the corporation reported a loss of ₹76 crore, despite bus fares having been increased twice in recent years, officials said.
Mr. Sarnaik, who is also Chairman of the MSRTC, held a meeting with senior officials, including Chief Security and Vigilance Officer Priyanka Narnavare and Financial Advisor Girish Deshmukh, along with department heads and Regional Managers at the MSRTC headquarters.
Officials said the revival strategy would focus not only on increasing revenue but also on curbing expenditure, fuel conservation, preventing revenue leakage and enforcing administrative discipline. The designated guardian officers will be held directly responsible for the financial performance of their respective divisions.
“The Transport Minister also warned Divisional Managers that they could face suspension if they fail to perform in their respective divisions,” an official said.
According to officials, the State has 31 MSRTC divisions, of which 21 — including Kolhapur, Nashik, Nagpur, Solapur and Nanded — are loss-making. “We are going to focus on the loss-making divisions,” an official said.
As part of the plan, review meetings for each division will be conducted during the first week of every month. These meetings will assess the previous month’s income and expenditure and prepare plans for the ongoing month.
“Depot-wise revenue targets will be clearly defined, and strict implementation of these targets will be ensured,” officials said.
Alongside revenue generation, emphasis will also be placed on reducing operational costs. Each depot will be instructed to conserve diesel, and an incentive scheme will reward depots that consistently achieve fuel savings, officials added.
To prevent revenue leakage, the Security and Vigilance Department will intensify monitoring efforts. “Instructions have been issued to prepare a separate list of conductors involved in revenue loss or irregularities in ticket transactions and to keep strict surveillance on them,” Mr. Sarnaik said.
“Passenger revenue is the backbone of the ST undertaking and no compromise in this regard will be tolerated,” he added.
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