Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, Feb 7: Certain private buses moving on the highway between the city, Udupi and Kundapur have suddenly hiked bus fares since the last some days. The passengers have been caught unawares by this unexpected hike, as the bus owners had not given advance indication of their intention.
Passengers have objected to this rise in charges, as they feel that the bus owners have resorted to upward revision of fare to transfer burden of toll charges to passengers. When approached, conductors of certain buses said that the owners had decided to raise the ticket charges as the vehicles will soon be required to pay charges at tollgates. However, secretary of Canara Bus Owners Association, K Suresh Nayak, says that the fare revision that had been approved by the transport authority sometime back had been affected three to four days back, and that there was delay in implementing the hike because of problems with the ticketing machines. He said that city buses in Udupi will also revise the fares shortly.
Monthly pass rates for buses have been fixed at Rs 3,570 at Hejamady tollgate, Rs 4,335 at Gundmi, and Rs 3,620 at Talapady. So, buses moving between the city and Manipal via Udupi have to pay Rs 3,570 every month towards toll charges as they come across one tollgate on this route. The hike now affected works out to roughly ten percent, as Rs 25 has been hiked to Rs 27, and Rs 55 to Rs 60. Many passengers argue that there are no tollgates between some points of travel for eg, Padubidri to Manipal and that it would be unjust to force passengers moving between these points to bear toll charges.
Even if the average burden of toll charges have to be shifted, the transport authority has to discuss the issue and fix the hike before it can be implemented, they argue. Passengers also rue the fact that several buses have flouted the rule announced by the chairman of regional transport authority a few years back that all buses should use only ticketing machines. Some buses continue to use written tickets, they point out. In addition to this, there are complaints that buses running in certain routes collect ticket charges in excess of the ones announced by the transport authority, but both these complaints have not been seriously looked into, they add.
President of Canara Bus Owners Association, Rajavarma Ballal, said that hike in bus fares is on the cards because of the need to pay toll charges at Hajamady and Gundmi toll plazas, and that the association will shortly announce the hike being so affected.