Madurai, June 25: The Tamil Nadu government was likely to privatise certain operations of state transport bus corporations like maintenance of buses, body building, security and also canteen facilities, in a bid to increase profits, a top official of the transport department said today. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said that a recent meeting of managing directors of corporations at Tiruchirappalli had decided to privatise bus cleaning, canteens and provision of security, after assessing staff strength.

The meeting had also decided to deploy engineers, who were working as time-keepers at the depots, to the bus stands so that they could learn field work better.

It also decided to appoint 'contract drivers' to operate buses inside the depot and use regular drivers only on "route buses". The meeting also suggested that distribution of student passes, tyre retreading, and body building be handed over to the private sector, he said.

Among the other recommendations made at the meeting were to postpone wage revision for some more years and to terminate the services of drivers who were responsible for causing two accidents, leading to deaths and conductors who had been issued two chargesheets for not issuing tickets.

It also recommended a reduction in 'leave' facilities for bus crew, on par with private business firms and industrial units.

Bureau Report