BENGALURU: Just ahead of the New Year, private bus operators have hiked their fares to cash in on people heading to their home towns, or tourist and pilgrimage destinations.
According to passengers, the fares have gone up by over 20 per cent on all routes. They complained that there is no enforcement by the transport department to curb overcharging by private bus operators.
Due to the New Year rush, trains and government buses are booked. On regular days, the ticket cost of an AC sleeper bus, even from a leading private travels firm, would be within Rs 1,500 from Bengaluru to Salem. However, now, the rates have already crossed Rs 2,000 and as time passes, the rates will keep on increasing, said Purushotham Shiva, a passenger.
Comparing the recent bus fare hike with the one he experienced during Deepavali, he said, “The cost of the tickets are almost double now. This time, the fare has increased by over 30 per cent.”
“During New Year, Sankranti, Ugadi, Independence Day, Ganesh Chaturti, Ayudha Pooja, Deepavali and on long week ends, private travel operators jack up the fares. The government just projects that it carried out raids here and there against the overcharging operators. However, this gets repeated every season,” said Vinay Kumar, a private company employee. “As we were sure that private buses will hike the fares, we planned our New Year celebrations well in advance and booked tickets on KSRTC,” he added.
The transport department, which is empowered to conduct raids and prevent private travel operators from charging exhorbitant fares, has not taken any strict action. Officials from department urged passengers to call the helpline numbers (94498 62439 and 9449863426) to report incidents of private bus operators charing excess fares.