BENGALURU: Commuters may have to wait for a few more days for the promised bus fare cut.
The state transport corporations had hiked fares in May 2014, but the recent plunge in fuel prices had triggered a demand to roll back the hike.
However, all four state-owned transport corporations (KSRTC, BMTC, NWRTC and NEKRTC) initially fought against the reduction citing several expenses which would leave them with losses at the end of the financial year. Due to mounting pressure, Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy announced a fare reduction of 2 to 3 per cent recently. He said the transport corporations had been asked to draw up a plan for the purpose.
On Thursday, a senior BMTC official said the fare reduction has not been implemented yet and did not give a timeframe for it. Reddy told Express that the proposal has been forwarded to the Finance Department.
“I intend to follow up on this tomorrow as I was out of town for a few days. We have proposed a 2-3 per cent reduction and asked the department to consider it,” Reddy said. However, he still insisted that all the transport corporations would have to sustain some losses as a result of the fare reduction.