India‟s public transit sector is dominated by State Transport Undertakings (STUs), 

body
incorporated under the Road Transport Corporations Act, 1950. Most of the  STUs over the
years accumulated deficits and have not been able to meet the  increasing public transit
needs, partly also due to diseconomies of scale in the long  run (Singh, S, 2000). Gujarat
State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) buses  carry on average around 2.4 million
passengers daily. It has about 41000  employees on its rolls. During the last few years the
challenges before the GSRTC  have become all the more formidable. With rapid
industrialization and high GDP  growth rate of the state, the demand for public transport is
ever increasing. The  customer profile is changing and expectations have risen multifold.
Now, it has to  serve customers who demand superior services at low prices and have an
upper  hand due to availability of more choices for transportation. Simultaneously, the 
competition from private players is increasing, as they have a greater flexibility in  their
operations. They are under no social obligation to provide either subsidized  travel to certain
categories of people or to operate uneconomic routes like the  GSRTC. Moreover, legally
speaking private stage carriage operations are  unauthorized, because they have permits
only for casual contracts, which mean  that the entire bus has to be hired for a specific trip
and the operators cannot issue  stage wise tickets. However, most of the private buses
under casual contract are  openly run for stage carriage which is exclusive legal right of
GSRTC. The private  bus operators, on average pay substantially less passenger tax to the
state. 

As the fleet size of GSRTC has reduced over the years, and there is a paucity of  buses for
stage carriage, the State perhaps does not vigorously enforce the stage  carriage rule and
the GSRTC loses out in business to the private players because  of the absence of level
playing field. Furthermore, an assessment of current  capabilities to meet the changing
environment indicated that in spite of induction of  new fleet of buses from time to time to
make the operations even better, the market  share and overall stature of the GSRTC has
been shrinking with time, because the  new buses are being inducted only to replace the
huge backlog of over-aged buses.  The GSRTC has initiated significant change initiatives
for organizational  transformation. Depot Manager (DM) is the key strategic position,
representing the  cutting edge role in the GSRTC. DM is the officer who is overall in-charge
of a depot, the administrative unit, at the cutting edge to manage operations of services 
and maintenance of buses. The job of DM is multifaceted involving multitasking  activities
like managing depot and staff, operating the fleet, monitoring schedule of  vehicles,
controlling traffic, coordinating with passengers and vendors and  maintaining cleanliness of
the rolling stock and the depot, managing workshop and  rest rooms etc. The job
description of DM is given in the annexure-I. It is imperative  that the cadre be staffed with
highly skilled professionals as the role of DM  demands administrative expertise, technical
prowess, traffic insights and leadership  competencies as they are managing whole depot
which is the revenue generating  source of the GSRTC. As per the current policy the DMs
are selected and placed  through internal promotions and as well as by external
recruitment. Out of 114 DMs,  45% DMs are promoted internally from the cadre of Assistant
Works Supervisor  (AWS) and Assistant Traffic Supervisor (ATS). Most of them, have very
little  professional education because as per the old recruitment rules for drivers and 
conductors only limited primary education was necessary and they were promoted  to AWS
and ATS from drivers and conductors cadres. The GSRTC management  has realized that
the cadre of DMs needs to be equipped with the managerial and  leadership competencies
in order to enable them to perform their duties and  effectively. 
Brown (2006) concluded that key roles are critical and companies needed to invest 
substantial time, money and effort in training and development. Organizations are 
increasingly using training initiatives as a means of enhancing capability to realize  their
business goals (Kim, 2007). A key challenge for the GSRTC is to ensure that  the basic
public transit services are delivered to passengers punctually and  efficiently. For this
 purpose, DMs are required to be trained intensively and  extensively in a range of subject
areas. The GSRTC‟s top management team  strongly felt the need to conduct an „as-is‟
TNA research. The paper is the outcome  of research answering two questions for the
GSRTC: 

i. What are the training gaps for DMs? 

 The educational qualification is of concern since most of them, have very little 
professional education because as per the old recruitment rules. So, they need to be
equipped with the managerial and  leadership competencies in order to enable them
to perform their duties and  effectively. 

 The job requirement and skill gap. The job of DM is multifaceted involving
multitasking  activities. As per the current policy the DMs are selected and placed 
through internal promotions and as well as by external recruitment. Most are
promoted internally and might be lacking the knowledge of their customers/market.
ii. What are organizational and individual training needs to bridge the identified  gaps?
 Exploring and obtaining information about the job roles and then identify job related
areas where they lack knowledge and skill and need subsequent training.
 Training the DM for the multiple verticals: Managing Multidisciplinary actins training
Workshops on basics of finance, scheduling bus operations etc
 Before promoting them to a higher position, Proper training for that role&
responsibilities associated with it should be provide.