Konduskar Travels is a leading bus fleet operator from Kolhapur. With more than two decades of its dedicated bus fleet services, Konduskar has built its reputation in the bus fleet industry in Maharashtra. We spoke to Mr. Prabhakar Konduskar, Founder and Managing Director, Konduskar Travels, at the company head-office at Kolhapur to get to know more about the company plan for expansion and diversification.
Mr. Prabhakar Konduskar stated: “Konduskar Travels was started in 1994 and was registered on April 4, 1997, as a private limited company. Basically the Konduskar Group was in petroleum business and our BPCL diesel outlet at Gokul Shirgaon, Kolhapur, was India’s highest HSD selling pump for seven consecutive years. Commencement of passenger bus fleet operations was a strategic decision to leverage upon the existing strength of the group.”
Recalling Konduskar’s first steps into the bus fleet operations, he said: “Initially, Konduskar purchased four Sutlej-built buses for starting operations. We operated mainly with Tata and Ashok Leyland buses during 1993-2001. Later in 2001 when Volvo decided to enter the Indian market, we were amongst the first bus fleet operators in India who were privileged to perform trials with Volvo buses and test them on Indian roads. Purchasing a Volvo was an expensive and costly investment, but we had thrust in the product quality. We went ahead with the purchase of our first Volvo B7R coaches. In 2007, we also introduced Mercedes-Benz buses in our fleet as well. Presently, Konduskar has a majority of Volvo coaches on its inter-city routes of operation.”
The vision and goal of Mr. Prabhakar Konduskar with his venture of Konduskar Travels was always to offer a sustainable ultra-premium luxury bus service. In its early days, Konduskar gained a lot of inspiration from Premium Airlines and Premium Coaches running in Europe. The prime motto of Konduskar Travels was providing bus passengers the ‘Airplane Service on Road’ feel through its fleet services.
Recalling his initial days of entrepreneurial journey, Mr. Prabhakar said: “When Volvo entered India in the ‘Intercity Bus’ segment in 2001, it imported two Volvo B7R buses from Singapore for demo purpose. Konduskar was one of the two operators to receive buses for evaluation on Indian roads. A Volvo would cost about five times the normal Indian-made buses, but we saw its value rather than the cost. The vision was already set and Volvo buses aligned perfectly to it. We purchased four buses initially, out of the 20 coaches sold in 2001. People from Maharashtra soon got the taste of ultra-premium luxury bus service that we always wanted to have, which, in turn, helped us realize our vision, which to this day, has been supporting us in our bus fleet operations.”
Environmental care
Giving an overview about Konduskar Travels’ fleet operations, the MD observed: “Our vision and passion is to serve people with our ultra-premium luxury coaches. We operate mainly with high-end well-maintained coaches. With our headquarters at Kolhapur, we connect destinations pan Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. We connect routes from Kolhapur to Pune, Mumbai (Crawford Market, Thane / Borivali, Dombivali), Nashik / Aurangabad and Solapur. We also connect Sangli with Shirdi, Mumbai (Borivali), Pune and Bengaluru, while our other routes of operation include Aurangabad-Mumbai (Borivali), Aurangabad-Pune, Pune-Solapur, Shirdi-Panjim-Madgaon (Margao) and Mumbai-Pune-Madgaon (Margao).”
He added: “We are more focussed towards environment-friendly buses. We were among the first to purchase Volvo B8R buses which comply with BS-IV/Euro-IV emission norms. In our quest to be more ‘Green’, we have also set up an AdBlue manufacturing unit under our brand ‘Inabgo Adblue’, which has been sub-licensed by VDA, Germany. The quest for more ‘Green–Initiatives’ does not stop here. We are going ‘electric’ soon.”
Briefing on the streamlining measures on the bus fleet operation front, Mr. Prabhakar disclosed: “Installation of CCTV for monitoring and security purposes, GPS tracking of bus fleet, fleet management services and ‘Fast- Tag’ E-Toll facilities are our new initiatives keeping in mind our huge fleet and service maintenance and upkeep. Konduskar Travels also runs its buses on PPP (Public Private Partnership) in Kadamba Transport, Goa SRTC and Gujarat GSRTC fleet operations, with rules and regulations laid down by ASRTU. Konduskar runs 36 buses in GSRTC – includes 26 Volvo B7R and 10 Volvo B8R buses – while it has four Volvo B7R buses in contract with Kadamba Transport, Goa, on the PPP model.”
Konduskar Travels has well-equipped bus fleet maintenance infrastructure. It has its in-house garage facility based at Kohapur, Pune and Mumbai (Borivali), which is handled by automobile engineers and mechanics trained by Tata, Ashok Leyland, Volvo and Mercedes-Benz. The company uses pneumatic tools and has its own spareparts and tyre store in-house facility. The workers make use of the latest available technology, wherein all engine-related performance parameters and issues are transmitted to the mechanics on their hand-held devices, and vehicle performance is tracked through software tools on the finger tips.
Focussing on future plans and ventures, Mr. Prabhakar explained: “As our brand is focussed on high-end buses and coaches, which are environment-friendly, we plan to turn to hybrid-electric or to pure electric buses in the very near future. I personally feel that bus crews play an important role in maintaining a better bus fleet operator business and sustainable services. All our Volvo drivers are trained at Volvo India’s driver training institute, located at Hoskote, Bengaluru, and maintenance staff trained by respective OEMs. We have our training department dealing with training of drivers, attendants, office staff and managers for keeping good public relations both on board our buses and at our respective offices”.
Prompt customer service
Konduskar Travels directs its management on prompt addressing of passenger queries and complaints. On the operation front, online complaints or suggestions and queries by passengers are attended to patiently and immediate actions or solutions provided soon. A CAPA analysis is done by its branch managers at the ground level which is then shared with the management, daily. The operator has its own online booking portal, and has booking facilities on all major online bus e-ticket booking platforms in the country, assisting its online booking business and fleet operations. It also has its own Android and iOS-based app, facilitating ‘booking-on-the-go’ for the passenger.
On being asked about expansion projects and plans, the MD said: “As we expand our operations with our new routes and fleet, we feel that the affordability on the passenger end for a particular service and route is very important. We are operating with highest market brand value vehicles providing comfort, luxury and also taking care of the economic viability of the passenger. Hence it is important to check the quality of road, passenger occupancy and affordability.
Speaking on the USPs of the company, Mr. Prabhakar felt: “Here at Konduskar we have a slogan – “Ontime – Everytime”. We believe that the greatest value proposition to customers is the punctuality of service. We do provide clean and neat buses with a good decorum on our schedules, which have been always appreciated by our passengers, who rely on our services. We have always been stressing safe driving and passenger safety. Similarly, we have various core values imbibed in our ‘Coach-Captains’ and ‘Attendants’ onboard our elite services.
Tackling challenges
Terming challenges and odds in the passenger transport business with reference to the Motor Vehicle Act and definition of contract carriage as the de-accelerators towards sustainable growth, Mr. Prabhakar felt that the Bus Operators Confederation of India (BOCI) should take up steps to tackle these issues with the help and co-operation of all its members under one common umbrella of the council towards implementation of a better framework in the sector.
Sharing his views on the constitution of BOCI with support of the all private bus fleet operators in the country in 2017, as a step ahead in addressing the core issues of the bus industry in India, Mr. Prabhakar congratulated the working council on doing an appreciable work by providing a platform to bring all the concerns faced by operators and companies related to the bus industry upfront.
Sharing his views on “One India – One Tax and GST as a measure for uniform taxation pan India with respect to the Bus fleet operator industry, Mr. Prabhakar stated: “This is a very complicated subject and each and every state has powers to lay down taxation structure for passenger transport buses. The One India – One tax will definitely give India – a boom with lot of opportunities opening with its implementation. The passengers will benefit a lot from it as the inbuilt prices of taxes for crossing states will come down. Coming to service tax, which was previously applicable on some typical type of buses. Now GST is uniform and we welcome the implementation of GST on business. The GST regime seems good and we think it’s a step forward for overall development in business.”
Concluding on an optimistic note, Mr. Prabhakar commented: “Konduskar Travels represents a more than two decades old investment in a continuous strive to provide passenger bus fleet services for the common people in Kolhapur and across the State of Maharashtra. I feel the need of the hour is the promotion of mass transport as a means of sustainable mobility. As we go ahead with our plans of promoting public mass transport in the coming years, keeping in mind our ‘Green Drivelines’ for curbing pollution and its adverse impact, we at Konduskar are planning our major leap forward in transport and technology with electric and hybrid-electric buses as our prime focus in implementation of sustainable and clean bus transport initiatives in India”.
KONDUSKAR TRAVELS STATS
- Formed in 1994
- Number of buses in fleet : 100
- Longest route operated at present : Madgaon (Margao) – Shirdi (690 Kms), Sangli – Bengaluru (670 Kms)
- Distance covered everyday : 50,000 kms
- Passengers carried daily : 7350
- Schedules per day : 237
- Workforce : 450
- Online Booking Portal: www.konduskartravels.in