A day after the State government revised private bus and taxi fares, private bus operators have decided to meet Transport Minister Antony Raju by Monday with a demand to revise student concession.
Lawrence Babu, general secretary, Kerala State Private Bus Operators’ Federation, said on Thursday that the government decision to revise the fares was a welcome decision. But the decision would not bring any cheers to the sector as the present revision was not sufficient enough to salvage the sagging fortunes of the industry, Mr. Babu said.
“A decision without revising the student concession will not do any good for the sector in the long run as students account for the majority of the passengers. Our main agenda of the proposed visit is to seek a revision in student concession as there is no logic in appointing another commission to look into the issue since the Ramachandran Nair Fare Revision Committee had already recommended increasing the concession charges,” Mr. Babu said.
Further, the private bus operators will get an additional revenue of around ₹700 a day through the current fare revision. But the present rise in fuel prices indicated that the hike in revenue would be short-lived considering the hike in diesel prices which continued to go north. For an ordinary bus, around 60-80 litres of diesel was required, while it would be around 120 litres for a limited stop bus. If there is a rise of ₹10 in diesel prices in the next 10 days, things would be back to square one, the bus owners said.
Meanwhile, the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) asked the State government to review the fare revision of taxi autorickshaws and cars as the present revision was unscientific. When the State government increased the fares of auto from ₹25 to ₹30, it increased the minimum distance to be covered under the minimum fare to 2 km from present 1.5 km.
This would render the revision unscientific as auto drivers would have to incur a loss of ₹1. 65 a km as per the current revision. Various trade unions had submitted a representation to the Minister to revise fares scientifically, said V.R. Prathapan, State general secretary, Motor Workers’ Federation.
