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Fuel price impact: Pune’s private bus services to hike fares by 20% from June 1
The hike would be implemented for long-distance tourist buses, school buses and buses ferrying employees of various companies in the city.
With the state transport administration considering a fare hike for the Maharashtra state road transport corporation (MSRTC) buses, owners of private buses too have decided to hike fares by 20 per cent from June 1.
The decision comes in the wake of the recent hike in petrol and diesel prices, due to which bus operators are claiming a loss of ₹80,000 to ₹90,000 per month, per bus.
The hike would be implemented for long-distance tourist buses, school buses and buses ferrying employees of various companies in the city.
Kiran Desai, secretary of the Pune bus owners association, says, "Dynamic pricing of fuel and constant rise in the cost of diesel is making bus operation not viable financially at the current rates. Hence, it has become necessary to hike rates by 20 per cent to 25 per cent."
“If the hike in fuel prices was done at one go, the exact losses could have been analysed, but the losses have been affecting operators slowly for a long time and hence the hike,” he added.
When contacted, Rajan Junawane, vice-president, Pune bus owners association, also stated that a hike of 15-20 per cent in bus fares of mainly school buses, buses ferrying employees and tourist buses would be implemented from June 1.
He added that there are 20,000 such buses across Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad, whose fares will be hiked.
"The fares of these buses have not been hike since 2013, when the diesel rates were around ₹58 per litre. Presently, diesel rates have crossed ₹70 per litre. Also, the regional transport office transport office rules have changed and having speedometers have become compulsory in buses. Considering all these factors, a hike has become imperative for us and will surely be implemented," said Junawane.
Recently, Diwakar Raote, state transport minister, too had stated that with rising diesel prices, hike in fares of MSRTC buses had become the need of the hour. According to Raote, a decision regarding the same would be taken in the first week of June.
