The Katsina State Transport Authority (KSTA) says it has settled the N50 million debt and other liabilities it inherited and purchased additional buses in the last four years.

KSTA general manager Haruna Musa stated this on Thursday during the launch of three additional buses purchased by the authority.

According to him, the effort was to uplift the number of its fleet in addition to generating more revenue for the state. He added that other debts settled include salaries and other related liabilities from dealers and traders of assorted vehicle spare parts.

Mr Musa also mentioned that the state achieved it through the new financial arrangement vis-a-vis the public-private partnership introduced by Governor Aminu Masari’s administration, where money generated is divided into three parts.

He added that the first part went to staff salary, the second for vehicle maintenance, and the third was for capital investment. The KSTA boss announced that the transport authority emphasised the need for its drivers to observe safety measures in their daily duties.

The general manager added that the agency did not relent in monitoring its drivers to take appropriate actions against erring ones as a deterrent to others.

“The effort we have made is that when we came on board in 2018, we met the authority in its dilapidation stage where out of the 106 vehicles that were available, 57 were grounded with various degrees of problems,” Mr Musa.

He added, “Forty-nine vehicles were plying on roads out of which only two were serviceable and with huge debt. The state government intervened by providing the authority with 25 new buses to complement in generating more revenue to the organisation. It has now reached the level that we have zero vehicles waiting for maintenance in the workshop.”

Launching the three newly-purchased buses, Mr Masari appreciated the performance of the current management of the transport authority.

“I have been involved with the KSTA as far back as 1992 when I was the commissioner of works, housing and transport during Saidu Barda. The KTSTA then was not functioning. In fact, it was dead,” the Katsina governor said. “We advised the then governor to resuscitate the transport authority for the benefit of the masses, which he did, and we started with not more than 30 new buses at that time.”

(NAN)