Karnataka transport corporations to buy 25 percent auto parts from SMEs

The Karnataka government has decided to procure a majority of auto parts for the maintenance of its four road transport corporations from Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector within the state.

According to Karnataka transport minister Ramalinga Reddy, the four government road transport undertakings in Karnataka will together purchase over 25 percent of their total auto spare parts of Rs 570 crore from SMEs in Karnataka annually.

In Karnataka thousands of buses are operated by four State Transport Undertakings (STUs) – Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), North Eastern Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NEKRTC) and North-Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation.

The minister was speaking today at the vendor meet of the Association of State Road Transport Undertakings’ (ASRTU) organised by the Karnataka Small Scale Industries’ Association (KASSIA) in association with the state government.

The purpose of ASRTU is to ease the government formalities for SMEs to sell their products to the STUs.

The minister said the “vendor meet would enable new entrants to know the intricacies of ASRTU’s Vendor Development Registration Scheme (VDRS), which would also help the State’s STUs to meet their requirements without any hassles.”

P S Anand Rao, executive director of ASRTU, said the agency helped provide STUs right quality auto spares at the right price at the right time, by establishing rate contracts with quality spare parts manufacturers. 
With the ASRTU’s approved rate contract, an auto components manufacturer did not have to participate in every individual STU tender and could directly approach any STUs in different states. Despite this advantage, the procurement of auto components through ASRTU by STUs was only around 17 percent of the total purchases made, he said, and requested the transport minister to increase procurement of auto components by the state’s SRUs through the ASRTU’s rate contract. 
He added that the ASRTU had already written to the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and finance for including the rate contract awarded by it in the approved list of central purchase organisations like the Directorate General of Supplies and Disposal.

S K Patra, director (technical), ASRTU, stated that 62 STUs in the country operate 1.47 lakh buses, serving 70 million passengers every day and employ nearly a million people.

The inaugural session was followed by a series of technical presentations on tendering, RC system, VDRS, testing, procurement policies, panel discussion on banking needs and IT solutions for MSMEs, e-learning and skill enhancement, and supply chain and procurement for MSMEs. 

Photograph: Ramalinga Reddy, Karnataka minister for transport, lights the traditional lamp to inaugurate the SRTU Vendor Development Meet.