History

The recognized scheme of this state Road Transport is published through Notification MVA 3173/30303-XIIA dated 29.11.1973 in their official record. The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation is operated under this scheme.

The complete area of Maharashtra is covered under this scheme and state as well as contract basis carriage services are operated by the undertaking. An exception to this is S.T. undertaking that is mentioned in Section 68 A (b) of M. V. Act and there are also other exceptions as mentioned in this scheme.

The current Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation depicts the merging of 3 streams for offering road transport in public sector. This is associated to Hyderabad, Madhya Pradesh and Bombay before the 1956 reorganization. In chronological order, Hyderabad boasts of providing the best road transport facility to public.

The first bus ran between Pune and Ahmednagar in the year 1948.

Initially, many people did not believe that this Transport (ST) bus service would last for more than 2 years. As of now, it has completed 58 years since its inception. With 16,000 buses managed by 12,000 employees to transport about 70 lakh people daily, its success can be easily gauged.

Various entrepreneurs began venturing into public transport sector in 1920s. The well known motor vehicle act was passed in 1939 before which there was not any specific regulation to monitor their functions and as a result of arbitrary competition, the fares were unregulated.

The Act set the things right. Unions were formed to define routes in particular areas. With a schedule that was set in, travelers were also benefitted. Time tables, conductors, pick up points and fixed rates were introduced. This continued till 1948. This was when Transport Bombay was started by the state government of Bombay under the guidance of home minister Late Morarji Desai. The first silver and blue bus took off between Pune and Ahmednagar.

Peak caps and khaki uniforms were worn by drivers and conductors. At that point of time, 10 different types of buses were used - Chevrolet, Seddon, Fort, Morris Commercial, Bedford, Leyland, Studebaker, Albion, Fiat and Commer.

Morris Commercial Chassis introduced two luxury coaches in the beginning of 1950s. They were called Giriyarohini and Neelkamal that ran between Pune and Mahabaleshwar. They had 2X2 seats, interior decoration, curtains, green color tinted glass and also a clock.

Road Transport Corporation Act passed in 1950 by our Central Government issued powers to all Indian states to develop road transport corporations individually. The Central Government would contribute 1/3rd of their capital. This is how the Bombay State Road Transport Corporation (BSRTC) came into existence. Later, its name was changed to MSRTC after the reorganization of states.

ST began with 30 number of Bedford buses that had wooden bodies and coir seats. The fare collected was nine paisa to travel between Pune and Nagar. Over the years, ST has seen many changes, to name a few, the capacity of seats increased by 15 and is currently 54, wooden bodies were replaced by steel ones and cushioned seats were introduced. In 1960, to overcome the problem of corrosion of steel, aluminum bodies were introduced and color code was changed from red to silver and blue. In 1956, night service was partially introduced which converted to overnight service after 10 years and semi luxury buses were introduced in 1982 during Asian games.

Another important thing is that ST apart from carrying people, managed to transport postal mail and takes care of distribution of medicine, newspapers and also lunch boxes to student studying in bigger towns. Farmers from rural areas can transport their goods to cities through ST. It has managed to serve efficiently despite the losses, bad roads and increased taxes.

No matter how bad the connecting road is, ST connects to each and every village, stand victoriously on their motto of `jitherasta, tithe ST' which means there is a ST bus for every road