pune the maharashtra state road transport corporation msrtc will soon engage trained counselors on an honorary basis for providing counseling services to its staffers mainly bus drivers and conductors at various depots across the state the corporation has released advertisements inviting applications for 63 honorary posts of psychological counselors more counselors are to be engaged after the initial posting of these 63 candidates senior msrtc officials said the move comes in the wake of the recent incident of rogue st bus driver santosh manes murderous drive through the busy roads of pune city that claimed the lives of nine people and left 31 injured on january 25 this is for the first time in the msrcts 63 years of existence that it will hire professional counseling service providers an msrtc official said the idea is to post one counselor for three to four st bus depots in a given area the hiring process has begun and we expect to complete the same in the next couple of months counselors having a postgraduate degree in psychology will be hired on an honorarium basis as per the plan the counselors will regularly visit their assigned depots to conduct interactive sessions with drivers conductors workers controllers and also with top officials at the depot during oneonone sessions with workers the counselor will primarily discuss various issues like working conditions for employees problems being faced by them and the mental stress at work the counselor will maintain a separate record of each employee if required the employee will be provided further assistance in terms of psychological treatment based on counseling feedback the official said after the mane incident the msrtc can barely afford to take any risk visavis stress at work for its employees the official said various steps are already being taken to provide upgraded facilities and restrooms for drivers conductors and workers hiring of counselors is one such step in maintaining healthy and stressfree environment at work he added the msrtc has also planned yoga sessions for their employees an official said that such sessions would give relief from mental stress and guide employees to good health sessions are expected to begin in the next few days in some st depots in pune divisionwidening of swargate terminus msrtc is considering widening of the swargate bus terminus entrance along the satara road from tuesday the msrtc introduced a change in the entryexit of buses at the terminus the gate at satara road is being used for entry and exit of buses officials are considering widening it further by at least 30 to 40 metres to streamline the traffic and provide a pathway for commuters to enter the terminus swargate registers entry and exit of total 1740 buses in a day