The fares of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and private buses in the State is to go up in within two days.
As the “Special Covid Fares” is only for the pandemic period and educational institutions are remaining closed due to lockdown in the country , the bus fares of the students had not been hiked.
The minimum fare in the ordinary buses had been retained at ₹8 by the Cabinet chaired by the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan that met on Wednesday. But, distance covered by minimum fare had been reduced from the existing 5 km to 2.5 km in the ordinary, city ordinary and city fast buses of KSRTC and private stage carriers.
For every subsequent km in the 16 fare stages of ordinary buses, the fare will go up by 90 paise as proposed by M. Ramachandran Fare Revision Committee. One travelling 40 km (fare stage 16) in ordinary bus will have to pay ₹42 as per the new fare instead of existing ₹33. The existing fare fo stage two onwards is 70 paise per km.
The fares for the Super class services like City Fast, Fast, Super Fast, Super Express,Super Deluxe, AC luxury Hitech,Single Axle, Multi Axle, Low floor AC and Low Floor Non-AC had been hiked by 25%. The subsequent km fare had been hiked by 90 paise to ₹2.50.
In the Super Class services, the revised minimum fare varies from ₹10 in City Fast for 2.5 km, ₹14 in Fast Passenger and Limited Stop Fast Passenger, ₹26 in low floor AC for five kms to ₹100 for 20 km in Multi-axle buses.
The revised fares will come into effect within two days as it has to be notified by the government and formalities have to be completed, says Transport Minister, A. K. Saseendran.
