The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation has been established by the Maharashtra State Government as per the provisions of Section 3 of the RTC Act, 1950.
MSRTCorporation is running its services through the approved scheme of road transport published vide notification MVA 3173/30303-XIIA dated 29.11.1973 in the Official Gazette.
The area covered by the scheme is the entire area of Maharashtra state. This undertaking is operating stage and contract carriage services in the entire area of Maharashtra State except ST. Activities defined under section 68 A (b) of the MV Act and other exceptions published in the scheme. The present Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) represents the confluence of three streams to provide passenger road transport in the public sector. These belong to the pre-1956 states of Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh and Hyderabad. However, chronologically, the pride of providing public road transport services goes to the state of Hyderabad.
In 1948, the first bus started from Pune to Ahmednagar.
It's a story that had a hesitant start, with many people seeing the State Transport (ST) bus service non-existent for over two years. Standing at this milestone of 71 years today, its strength speaks for itself - 18,449-odd buses, 1,02,000 employees, around 67 lakh citizens using the service daily. Tracing the history that witnessed this development, we go back to the 1920s, when various entrepreneurs began their work in the public transport context. Until the Motor Vehicle Act came into existence in 1939, there were no regulations to monitor their activities and this led to unregulated competition, unregulated fares. Law enforcement improved matters to some extent. Individual operators were asked to form unions on defined routes in specific areas. This proved to be beneficial for passengers as the timetable, pick-up points, Some sort of timetable is set with conductors and fixed ticket prices. Thus the situation remained till 1948, when the Bombay State Government started its own State Road Transport Service called State Transport Bombay. And the first blue-silver bus left Pune for Ahmednagar.
Drivers and conductors wore khaki uniforms and peaked caps.
10 buses were in use: Chevrolet, Forte, Bedford, Seddon, Studebaker, Morris Commercial, Albion, Leyland, Kamar and Fiat. In the early 1950s, two luxury coaches with Morris Commercial chassis were also introduced. They were called Neelkamal and Giriarohini and used to ply the Pune-Mahabaleshwar route. They had two by two seats, curtains, interior decoration, a clock and green glasses. In 1950, the Central Government passed a Road Transport Corporation Act and it empowered the states to form their individual Road Transport Corporations and contribute one-third of the capital of the Central Government. Thus the Bombay State Road Transport Corporation (BSRTC) came into being, later renamed MSRTC with the reorganization of the state.
ST started with 30 Bedford buses with wooden body, coir seats and fare was nine paisa on Pune-Nagar route. After seeing many changes to the ST, increasing their seating capacity from the original 30 to 45 to 54, introducing all-steel bodies to replace the wooden bodies to make them stronger and cushion seats for more comfort. Later, in the 1960s, aluminum bodies became known as steel corrodes, especially in coastal areas, and the color code also changed from blue and silver to red. A partial night service was introduced in 1956; About a decade later, overnight service and semi-luxury class came into being during the 1982 Asian Games. Interestingly, ST not only transports people, but also delivers postal mail, medicines, newspapers and tiffin. Children studying in big cities. In rural areas, it helps farmers transport their goods to cities. All these bad roads.
Be that as it may, ST reaches every village connected by road, no matter how bad it is, truly living up to its motto 'Jite Rasta, Dashansh ST' (Where there's a road, there's an ST bus)!!