The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has decided to hike bus fares across the board by an average seven to eight per cent, and the formal announcement will be made in the next couple of days.
The last time the transport corporation increased bus fares (by 10.5 per cent) was on June 15, 2013.
Addressing presspersons here on Friday, Minister for Transport Ramalinga Reddy said that the KSRTC proposal to hike bus fares comes in the wake of increased diesel prices and maintenance cost.
The transport corporation had incurred loss amounting to Rs. 200 crore, and the implementation of the proposed hike was inevitable, he said. On April 24 this year, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) hiked fares across the board by an average of 15 per cent.
Asked about the quantum of hike, the Minister said, “It is very less; may be half of the BMTC bus fare hike.” The hike could have been avoided if the State government had extended tax exemption to all road transport corporations (RTCs), he added. With the extended deadline for installing emergency doors in luxury buses ending on April 30, he said that the department had launched a drive against buses plying without the mandatory exit doors. Buses without emergency exit doors, including inter-State ones, operating from the State would be seized. More than 50 private buses without emergency exit doors had been seized in the Majestic and Kalasipalyam areas in Bangalore and a few elsewhere.
He said that emergency doors would be added to all single-door KSRTC Pushpak buses.
Such doors have been fixed on 100 Pushpak buses and work was on to provide the facility in another 200 such buses.
In November 2013, the department announced that buses without emergency doors would not be allowed to operate after April 30, 2014.
