Mathew T. Thomas

Mathew T Thomas
Former Minister for Transport, MLA
In office 2006–2009
Succeeded by	Jose Thettayil
Constituency	Tiruvalla, Pathanamthitta
Personal details
Born	(1961-09-27) 27 September 1961 Tiruvalla, Pathanamthitta district, Kerala, India
Nationality	Indian
Political party	Janata Dal (Secular)
Spouse(s)	Achamma Alex

Mathew T Thomas (born 27 September 1961) is an Indian politician who is currently the State President and Legislature Party Leader of the Janata Dal (Secular) He was the Minister of Transport for Kerala from May 2006 to August 2009 in the LDF ministry led by V.S. Achuthanandan.

Early life

He was born in Tiruvalla as the son of Rev. T. Thomas, a priest of the Mar Thoma Church. He completed his B.Sc. degree from the Mar Thoma College, Tiruvalla, and also has an LL.B. He was motivated by the imposition of Emergency in 1977 to enter politics and joined the Kerala Vidyathi Janata(KVJ), the state youth wing of the erstwhile Janata Party. He served in various positions, beginning as the KVJ Unit Secretary in Marthoma College, Thiruvalla; then as Taluk Secretary, Thiruvalla, District President, Alappuzha, State Secretary, and as State President(1985-88.)^[1]

Political career

He has been elected thrice as a Member of the Kerala Legislature, in 1987,^[2] 2006^[3] and 2011.^[4] In the 2011 elections, he polled 63289 votes, winning by a margin of 10767 votes, over his nearest rival, Victor T. Thomas of the Kerala Congress (M).

Accomplishments in office

As the Minister of Transport, Mr. Thomas bought the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) out of great financial crisis with a series of reforms. He did a study involving management consultants from Kerala Transport Development Finance Corporation and identified areas where KSRTC could generate revenue and reduce cost. The major steps taken were transforming the bus depots into revenue generating shopping malls.^[5] As KSRTC owned the key location in every town this could generate income for KSRTC in the form of rent.^[6] The corporation is planning to construct as many as 30 modern commercial complex-cum-bus terminals in different parts of the state which are expected to create a monthly revenue of Rs. 100 crores. His hometown Tiruvalla is one of the first towns to get such a shopping mall. The commercial complex in Thiruvalla is a 10-storey structure with state-of-the-art facilities. The corporation was planning to implement the project on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis.^[7]

Another progressive step was to improve fuel efficiency and reduce accidents. This was achieved through incentivising the drivers with better economy and fewer accident rates. The corporation had submitted a proposal to the State Government for switching over to CNG as fuel. The proposal, worth Rs 280 crore, envisages using CNG in 1,500 buses in the first phase along with another proposal for acquiring electronic buses, and both the proposals would be presented before the 13th Finance Commission. The Corporation could register an annual profit of Rs 43 crore on converting to CNG and Rs 288 crore on using LNG.^[8] The KSRTC has been selected for the Kerala State Energy Conservation Awards 2009.^[9]

He revived the KSRTC bus body building units and ditched the decision to buy chassis from private companies, which saved the corporation a huge amount. This scheme also helped to move more contracted employees on to a permanent basis. He managed to review the pay scale after ten years and improve the working condition for the employees and made the KSRTC more employee friendly. He hence managed to avoid the strikes which had previously incurred heavy losses to the corporation every year.^[10]

Mr. Thomas was instrumental in getting more funding for the KSRTC. Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission project 80 low floor air-conditioned Volvo buses were launced in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi. Thiruvananthapuram also received another 50 air buses under the Ananthapuri Fast Buses Scheme.^[11] During his tenure, the monthly earnings of the corporation jumped Rs.68 crore to Rs.100 crore. The distance covered by the KSRTC buses increased from over 11 lakh to 13 lakh kilometers. KSRTC also created 9,135 vacancies during his term.^[12]

Mr. Thomas achieved all this with the credit of the only transport Minister to reduce the fares of KSRTC.^[13] He resigned as a result of a split in his party and sacrificed his ministership to his fellow party MLA Mr. Jose Thettayil.

References