GURUGRAM: If diesel prices continue to rise further, travelling on the state roadways buses may become costlier, the state transport department has indicated. Although the department has maintained that no fare revision has been decided yet, they noted that the earnings of roadways have drastically dropped and that the rising fuel prices is further adding to the crisis. If the prices fail to stabilise, the department may have to look for options to pull the state public transport fleet out of the mounting losses.
“Rising fuel prices have become a cause of concern for everybody. The transport minister recently highlighted to the public that the state roadways is reeling under deep losses and a sharp hike in diesel prices is only making things worse. While no decision has been taken so far, a rationale fare revision is one of the options that we may have to consider,” said a senior transport department official.
According to the official, the overall cost of running the state buses comes to about Rs 68.43/kilometre. Due to low ridership ever since the buses were put off the road during the first lockdown in March 2020, the roadways was incurring a loss of about Rs 38/kilometre. Now, with the increase in diesel prices, the department is recording a loss of over Rs 21 lakh per day. As a result, the overall losses have soared up to Rs 752 crore.
Last time, the government revised the bus fare in 2016. The operational cost at that time was Rs 37/kilometre. In August 2020, TOI had reported that the transport department had suggested a marginal fare hike in the range of 85 paisa/km to Rs 1/km for a distance of up to 100km and Rs 1.05/km for more than 100km. The decision, however, was later shelved.
The state roadways gives a lot of concessions to various groups like senior citizens, army personnel and girl students, among others. Moreover, while passenger services were suspended during the lockdown, buses were involved in ferrying migrants to their home states. In the past two years, the cost of operation has shot up but fares haven’t," the official added The state transport minister, although didn’t confirm the fare hike, noted that the matter is under consideration.
