CHENNAI: The State government has announced that the Rs 1,000 monthly MTC bus pass will continue to be sold at the same price, amidst criticism of the recent bus fare hike. However, rates for the route-specific passes in the city buses have been hiked and quantum of the hike is yet to be announced.
The Rs 50 daily pass, which allows a commuter to travel unlimited, has been stopped. While the Rs 1,000 pass allows a commuter to travel unlimited for a month in all categories of the MTC buses, except the airconditioned buses, the route-specific pass allows one to travel only between two specific bus stops.
Talking about how much the fare increase would for route-specific monthly passes, Transport Minister M R Vijayabhaskar said, “Those who had paid Rs 240 for a monthly season will now be charged Rs 320 while those passes which are sold for Rs 280 will sell at Rs 370. The daily pass which was sold at Rs 50 has been stopped to prevent malpractices.”
Making these announcements at a press meet at Ezhilagam here on Tuesday, the Minister said the reason for the decision not to increase the price of the monthly bus passes was to reduce the burden on the commuters. When the state government revised the bus fares on January 19, the MTC bus fares rose by nearly 95% and it also stopped selling monthly passes.
While the passes are generally sold between 1st and 20th of every month, the passes have not been sold so far this month.
MTC officials said there would be a slight revision of the fares again since they are reviewing the segregation of the”stages” in the bus routes and the changes would impact the fares.
The Transport Minister also said that 1,000 ordinary buses have been added to the fleet across the state after the fare hike. “The state government has sought funds from the Union government for purchasing 200 electric buses,” he added.
According to official records, nearly 12 lakh commuters avail themselves of various types of MTC monthly pass. With the fleet capacity of 3,200 buses, MTC caters for about 46 lakh commuters a day. However, the commuters’ patronage has came down drastically after the fare hike.
Daily passes stopped
The `50 daily pass, which allows a commuter to travel unlimited, has been stopped. One among many announcements, this pass was stopped so as to prevent malpractices, according to authorities.