The District Transport Workplace constructing close to the Kerala State Street Transport Company (KSRTC) bus depot at East Fort, Thiruvananthapuram, reverse Gandhi Park, presents an unassuming facade. The entry to the newly-inaugurated museum wing within the workplace is marked by colored plastic chairs positioned on each side of the pathway. The concrete flooring and whitewashed partitions paint a lacklustre image, opposite to the intimidating picture of a KSRTC bus, affectionately referred to as the aanavandi.

Nonetheless, contained in the museum, as you search for, you will note partitions adorned with picket frames and multiwood canvases (a kind of polymer), all painted with vibrant acrylics. The work doc buses from 1938, beginning with the Travancore State Transport Division (TSTD)-owned fashions and persevering with with KSRTC buses, after the Company was shaped in 1965. The museum is ready in such a way that individuals who select to journey within the KSRTC Swift’s Nagarakazhchakal journey ranging from East Fort can see the paintings earlier than the journey.

“The 1938-model bus was pushed by EG Salter, or Salter sayippu, the superintendent of Travancore State Transport Division, when it was inaugurated by Sree Chithira Thirunal the identical 12 months,” says artist Mahesh Velayudhan. He factors to the portray of a inexperienced bus, plying throughout the Karamana bridge, with a TSTD board, en path to Nagercoil from Kanyakumari, and says, “It’s mentioned they launched 27 buses of those fashions initially.”

Mahesh, 53, painted 18 works with the assistance of two different painters. This consists of 4 buses from 1938, two of which have been painted in shades of gray.

Mahesh was assigned to work on the museum on the instruction of Thiruvananthapuram Assistant Transport Officer, CP Prasad. Beforehand, he had painted murals of former state Ministers of Transport on the KSRTC central workshop at Pappanamcode. As a painter on the depot, Mahesh paints vacation spot boards, and creates designs on buses like “the Royal View double-decker buses, which have been launched in Munnar, earlier this 12 months.”

On the museum, Mahesh has painted the 1977 mannequin double-decker buses with the long-lasting purple and yellow color palette. “It was tough to search out the colors of the buses. We discovered what they have been by asking retired transport staff,” says Mahesh.

One other 1977 bus mannequin, longer than the standard KSRTC buses, with a peculiar, barely raised portion within the center behind its chassis space is on show, too. “They discontinued it as a result of it was impractical,” says Mahesh.

“The 1964 Benz mannequin buses in purple and yellow have been the primary ones to return out after the KSRTC was shaped,” says Mahesh.

A 1965-model bus, at present used as a depot van for repairs, spare components, and towing of malfunctioning buses, is on show with a blue-and-white Venad bus. Named after a medieval kingdom primarily based in Southern Kerala, Venad continues to be one of the vital generally discovered buses within the State.

The work embody depictions of pink buses for ladies, and a ring-road service bus (a bus following a round route) referred to as the Rajdhani bus, that are not in use.

The Rajdhani buses have been launched in 2012 April, however was quickly discontinued following monetary losses.

A portray of the Kaveri boat companies, which was managed by KSRTC until 1985, when the Division of Transport adopted it instantly, is on show too.

Mahesh says there are 4 extra work to be added to the gathering, which he hopes to complete in a month.

The artist can be hoping to color personal buses, which have been in existence earlier than the state transportation division buses. “One of many first buses was the scale of an prolonged autorickshaw. Since I’ve received my fingers on an image of it, I wish to draw it quickly.”

Revealed – September 16, 2025 05:00 pm IST