Commuters of TSRTC buses in Telangana, including those using buses in the twin cities have to cough up another 10 per cent of bus fares from June 27 as the State government announced a decision to this effect on Thursday.
The hike is effective for express buses and above up to AC buses and will fetch revenue of Rs 286 crore for the loss making TSRTC, which suffered Rs 2,275 crore loss, Transport Minister P Mahender Reddy has said.
Addressing the media at the Secretariat here on Thursday, along with TSRTC Chairman Somarapu Satyanarayana and Managing Director G V Ramana Rao, Mahender Reddy said the hike was unavoidable as the State is yet to increase the fares from 2013 despite Rs 2 crore loss every day. The RTC saw a loss of Rs 751 crore last year and “we are compelled to recover it through a little hike in the charges which are being hiked to 10 per cent”, he said. “Though Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh have increased the bus charges last year we are doing it now,” he added.
The minister said efforts were being made to see that the TSRTC will become profit-making unit and buying 1,200 new buses soon. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was lending a helping hand to the TSRTC to tide over the crisis, he added.
The old and new bus charges per km are: 79 paise to 87 paise for express, 89 paise to 98 paise for deluxe, Rs 1.05 to Rs 1.16 for super luxury, Rs 1.32 to Rs 1.46 for Indra, Rs 1.55 to Rs 1.71 and Rs 1.65 to Rs 1.82 for Garuda+ services. Palle Velugu buses up to 30 km will see a hike of Rs 1 and Rs 2 above the limit, he said. (NSS)