Maharashtra transport to hike bus fare by 18% from June 15

The passengers will have to pay more on the state-owned buses including the air-conditioned luxury buses, Shivneri and Shivshahi.

The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has announced an 18% fare hike on buses because of higher fuel prices and higher wage bill for its staff.

Shivneri bus tickets to cost more. (HT PHOTO)

The passengers will have to pay more on the state-owned buses including the air-conditioned luxury buses, Shivneri and Shivshahi from June 15.

MSRTC will implement the hike by rounding off the fare in the multiples of ₹5. It means that the passengers will be charged ₹10 if the fare for specific distance is ₹8 and ₹5 if it calculates to ₹7.

With this fare hike, private buses and intercity buses will get costlier for the passengers. This is because while fixing the fare of private buses, the state government has recently allowed the private bus operators to charge 50% more fare than MSRTC buses, irrespective of the class of the buses.

Due to this fare hike, Mumbai-Pune journey on Shivneri and Shivshahi buses is likely to increase from ₹430 and ₹253 to ₹510 and ₹300 respectively. Similarly, the fare of MSRTC buses on other intercity routes will go up on other intercity routes too.

“Earlier the corporation had proposed 30% fare hike due to additional financial burden, but to avoid pinching the passengers’ pockets, we decided to hike bus fare by 18%, said Divakar Raote, transport minister of the state and chairman of MSRTC.

Raote said that they have requested the chief minister Devendra Fadanvis and finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar to give concession in various taxes levied on diesel to the public transport corporation and both have responded it positively. If it happens, the fare of MSRTC buses will be revised again.