The Shanker Vittal Motor Co. was founded in 1929 by two brothers — Mr Shanker Bhat and Mr Vittal Bhat. About 3 years later, Mr Aroor Laxminarayan Rao — who was then a barrister and the District Board President for Education in Mangalore — saw an opportunity to build a sizable transport enterprise and bought out the company. Over the next several decades, he grew it into a large organization and set it on an expansion path to which his sons — Aroor Ram Mohan Rao, Aroor Krishamurthy Rao, Aroor Sripathi Rao, Aroor Ramesh Rao, Aroor Manohar Rao and their brothers/sons contributed substantially.

Shanker Vittal is currently run by Dr Aroor Prasad Rao as its Chairman and Managing Director (CMD). I myself — Prashanth Rao Aroor — would be the fourth generation of the family to serve the company, which is now in its 91st year.

The Early Days — Challenges & Opportunities

Having incorporated in pre-independence India, the company faced several challenges on its long journey. In the early days, western Karnataka was lacking in public transport for two reasons — one, the numerous rivers that slice the coast and two, being wedged in by the Western Ghats and the ocean without many options to connect to the hinterland of the Mysore state.

I am told that the buses rolled onto a twin-hull boat platform at each river and had to be rowed across. The journey along the coast would have been broken by several such crossings. For the entire duration of the Second World War, fuel, oil and other resources disappeared. The buses had to be rigged to run on makeshift steam turbines fueled by alternatives like coal and charcoal.

Shanker Vittal and a few other equally illustrious companies of that early period were pioneers in public transportation along the coastal belt. They collectively took a responsible approach to try and connect as many routes as possible to hubs like Mangalore and Udupi. The approach was not purely commercial — they sought to provide an essential service and coordinated amongst themselves to create networks of transport running on strict time tables, without competition and one-upmanship on the roads — thus ensuring safety and dependability.

Largely due to the efficiency of these private enterprises, the government transport corporation did not venture into this part of the state until very recently. The growth of the transport industry also enabled several other industries to develop — like education, healthcare and banking (seven out of fourteen nationalized banks were from Dakshina Kannada or nearby areas).

The Three Phases of the Shanker Vittal Journey

Shanker Vittal’s time as a major transport player in Dakshina Kannada can be broadly separated into three phases.

The pioneering phase — where it was all about the challenges of setting up infrastructure, depots, workshops, factories for body-building and creating a network for fuel stocking and dispensation. The first two generations worked tirelessly during that period. A great many citizens of the district joined the company’s workforce and management and served long careers in the service of the company and their fellow citizens. There was a real sense of community in the atmosphere of the company.

The second phase — the glory days in the 60s and 70s, where The Shanker Vittal Motor Co., Canara Public Conveyance, Hanuman Motor Transport and a few other organizations worked together to ensure that Dakshina Kannada and neighbouring districts like Chikmagalur, Shimoga and Uttar Kannada were among the best-connected areas in the state and country as far as public transport went.

The companies also set up a Combined Booking Agency (CBA) to vend unified tickets at transparent prices so people could use it to ride on any of the vehicles on a particular route without worrying about which company operated the bus. This ensured that buses did not compete for passengers and endanger the roads. It was a time when business was conducted with honour and public convenience in mind.

The Shanker Vittal Motor Co., with its sister concerns like Shanker Transport and United Roadways at its peak, operated a fleet size of over three hundred buses across every route along the coast and Malnad — with some long-distance routes to Bangalore and Mumbai as well. There were about 100 city buses operating within Mangalore City itself at one point.

The third phase was the overall decline of the private transport corporations in Dakshina Kannada between the 80s and the turn of the millennium. Largely due to transport policy changes effected by the government under transport minister Rajesh Pilot, the organized industry quickly unravelled in the 80s with new systemic problems emerging — rash competition on the roads, haphazard route allotments, and the nationalization of several viable routes. Over time, independent single operators emerged and the large corporations gently bowed out of the changing landscape to be resigned to folklore and history.

The Road Ahead — The Emergence of a New Avatar

Today, Shanker Vittal has transitioned to develop its various real assets into neighbourhood commercial hubs and residential projects in keeping with the infrastructure demands of present-day Mangalore. It has a roadmap of new ventures in hospitality, convention and sustainable tourism circuits along the coast. The goal is to play a new role in the needs of the people of the district in keeping with the times.

The greatest gift of having emerged as a provider of essential services is that the mention of Shanker Vittal to anyone born up to the 1980s invokes immediate reminiscence of how they used our buses to go to school, college or work and how the company was an integral part of the daily life of our patrons. Shanker Vittal is held in good standing even today when we are no longer significant players in the transport industry — the goodwill is still very much present.

It’s no secret that buses have always been the most efficient mode of transport in terms of carrying capacity per cost of infrastructure. As the population of Mangalore creeps up on the one million mark, the city needs to think long and hard under the smart city plan about how people will travel over the next 30 years. We cannot afford to play catch-up later.

The geography of the region doesn’t allow for the implementation of metro rail systems. And therefore, buses and similar modes of transport would continue to play a substantial role. Given our narrow roads and limited space, the best approach would be to move to more compact European-style electric buses with both standing and seating options for greater carrying capacity and low floors for easy entry and egress. In combination with cycling-friendly roads and a network of electrical charging hubs, the city has a real opportunity to make the shift to a pollution-free private and public transport grid, seamlessly moving people from point to point.

Perhaps with the right opportunity and need gap, The Shanker Vittal Motor Co. will have a second coming in the transport industry! Only time will tell.

Complied with historical accounts from Aroor Laxmi Rao and Dr Aroor Prasad Rao.