Traning Needs Analysts at GSRTC

Indias public transit sector is dominated by state transport by state Transport

Undertakings (STUs), body incorporated under the Road transport corporations Act,
1950. Gujrat State Road Corporation (GSRTC) is one of the STUs of Gujrat State.
Incorporated in 1960.
The demand for public transport is ever increasing due to high Gross domestic
product (GDP) growth rate of the state. Most of the STUs over the years
accumulated deficits and avg. not been able to meet the increasing public transit
needs, due to diseconomies of scale in the long run (Singh, 2000). The customer
profile of GSRTC is changing with multifold expectations. GSRTC buses carry, on an
average, 2.4 million passengers daily which is a challenge in itself. Simultaneously,
the competition from private players is increasing, as they have a greater flexibility
in their operations. These private transporters do provide subsidized travel to
certain categories, do not operate uneconomic routes and pay substantially less
passenger tax to the state as compared to GSRTC.
GSRTCs assessment of current capabilities to meet the changing environment
indicated that in spite of induction of new fleet of buses, the market shares and
overall stature of the GSRTC has been shrinking with time. During the last few year
challenges before the GSRTC have become even more formidable. Reduced fleet
size, over-aged buses, and lack of technical and functional competencies among
DMs were identified as major causes for the negative growth.
A DM is the officer who is the overall in-charge of a bus depot, managing operations
of services and maintenance of buses. The cadre of the depot Managersi (DMs) is
the key cadre among all the staff cadres in GSRTC. The role of the DM involves
multitasking activities (annexure 1). It is a strategic position, representing the
cutting edge role as they are managing whole depot, which is the revenue
generating source. GSRTC has 114 DMs as on 31-12-11.
It is imperative that this cadre is staffed with highly skilled professionals as the role
demands administrative expertise, technical prowness; traffic insights and
leaderships. Out of 114 DMs, 80 have little exposure to professional education as
they have risen in the organization from the lowest cadres. Brown (2006) in his
research emphasized that key roles are critical and companies need to invest
substantial time, money and training efforts into them.
The management of GSRTC has realized that the cadre of DMs need to be well
equipped with the managerial and leadership competencies, enabling them to
perform their duties and meet the diverse expectation of the stakeholders. The top
management of GSRTC was proactive and keen to understand the need of training
for DMs for the overall organizational changes and effectiveness. They believed that
DMs in GSRTC need to be trained intensively and extensively in a range of subject
areas to develop required business competencies and achieve organizational goals.
But since there existed no record about training preference, priority training areas

and differentiating competencies of bus DMs, the management felt the need to
conduct a TNA.