KSRTC increases bus fares by 7.96 per cent

www.mangaloretoday.com

Bangalore, May 3, 2014: The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has hiked bus fares for various destinations from Saturday midnight. While the revision amounts to 7.96 per cent increase in general, it has been kept slightly lower for ordinary services at 7.66 per cent as a relief to rural passengers.

The North West Karnataka Road Transport Corporation and North-East Karnataka Road Transport Corporation are also set to revise their bus fares with immediate effect. The move comes close on the heels of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation hiking fares for city bus services.

With this increase, KSRTC hopes to mobilise additional revenue of Rs 123.87 crore a year against an increased operational cost of Rs 207.82 crore.

The estimated revenue deficit of Rs 83.95 crore is expected to be wiped out by improving operational efficiency.

The Corporation blamed the monthly increase in price of High Speed Diesel (HSD) by the Centre for the hike. In addition to an average increase of 60 paise per litre per month in price of HSD, the price of HSD oil had gone up by Rs 7.21 a litre since the last bus fare hike, a Corporation press release said.

The Corporation said fuel price hike burden alone amounted to Rs 105.05 crore a year. It also cited the fare revision formula approved by the government which necessitated factoring in dearness allowance paid to employees - a whopping sum of Rs 102.77 crore, pushing up the overall operational cost to an estimated Rs 207.82 crore a year.

However, S Nagaraju, joint-secretary, KSRTC Staff and Workers Federation, charged the KSRTC management with lying about increasing the dearness allowance and said an amount of Rs 820 crore was due to 1.20 lakh odd employees.

Reacting to the fare hike, a frequent traveller from Mysore to Bangalore K J Pavan said that the increase of Rs 12 in fare will definitely burn a hole in his pocket and said that he will have to think twice before planning a visit.