Parents in the city say that bus operators are not interesting in rendering their services for school transport as they claim arranging buses for just a few children is not profitable. Faced with this problem, a group pf parents from Karve Nagar organised support for one of their acquaintances who wanted to start a transport service and now they are sending their children to school in his Maruti Omni van.

Preeti Randive, a parent from Sahyadri Society from Karve Nagar, said that they were finding it extremely difficult to arrange transport for their children.


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Palkhi processions in the city. PICs/ Navnath Kapale

"When we approached bus operators, they said that operating a large bus only for four to five children was non-profitable since the running costs were high. A bulk order was suitable for them, but this was not possible in our case," Randive said.

Randive has a four-year-old boy who goes to the Sapling Nursery school on Baner Road. The parents first decided to start a car pool, which did not work out owing to time constraints.

"One of our acquaintances wanted to start a transport business when we decided to support him and use his service as well. We helped him establish his business initially," she said.

Randive added that they had completely ruled out autorickshaws since they felt these were dangerous.

Baba Shinde of the Maharashtra Khajgi Bus Chalak Sanghatana agreed that bus drivers do refuse children in cases of low numbers.

"It becomes uneconomical for parents as well as bus operators. They should, however, explore other vehicle options like the Maruti EECO, TATA Winger, which have been recently approved by the government," he said.

Another parent, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that different children had different school timings, and this was another reason why it was not possible to opt for car pooling.

"One parent cannot drop two primary schoolchildren in the morning and again drop another kindergarten child late in the morning. We, therefore, decided to promote one of our own friends and send our wards to school," he said.