The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : Consumer body flays bus fare hike

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Sunday, Nov 16, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Consumer body flays bus fare hike

Staff Reporter

Coimbatore: The Coimbatore Consumer Cause has drawn the attention of the Chief Minister towards the ‘arbitrary’ and ‘unofficial’ bus fare hike imposed by the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC).

In a memorandum to the Chief Minister, the secretary of CCC, K. Kathirmathiyon, had pointed out that despite compelling reasons and severe financial constraints faced by the TNSTCs, the Chief Minister had assured that the government would not hike bus fare in the larger interest of the people.

But unfortunately, the TNSTC officials were collecting excess bus fare from the people in the recent days by adopting different names for buses and the Regional Transport Authorities were not initiating any action on the issue.

Many ordinary buses were named as ‘Express’ and higher charges were being collected in a number of routes. Further the Coimbatore – Madurai fare was raised by nearly Rs. 6 without any reason recently. In fact, the Coimbatore – Madurai and Coimbatore - Tiruchirapalli fares should have been reduced since the buses were now operated from the new Singanallur bus stand.Many ordinary buses were named as Limited Stop Service and excess fares were being collected.

When CCC sought details of LSS and approval for route number 1C and for buses plying in other routes, the Transport Department officials informed that they had not issued any permit for operation of LSS buses.

But practically many buses were being operated in the name of LSS, which stopped at all the bus stops. Similarly, in the name of ‘Deluxe’ buses, nearly 250 per cent of fare was being collected.

As per the Motor Vehicle Rules, for any category of service, approval had to be obtained from the Regional Transport Authority and only the fares approved by the District Collector had to be collected by the bus operators.

Since Corporations were State-owned, officials were reluctant to take action. If the TNSTC wanted to operate such services, they could very well obtain permit and get the fare table approved by the administration before collecting excess fares.

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