RTO: ‘There is a fixed rate per kilometre for private buses’

Operators are charging more than the usual rates for holiday destinations

Travel fares become fluid during holidays. In some cases, small operators change fares within a few minutes.

Bengaluru: Travelling out of the city by bus over the past few days has been a rude shock for many passengers who did not book in advance. With seats filling up rapidly due to the festive season, bus operators have taken to charging more than the usual rates for holiday destinations and in some cases these fares are more than double the normal fares.

“I wanted to go home for Christmas. Usually, I take a bus to Pune or Mumbai and another bus from there to Ahmedabad. But this time, I could not book tickets early. Now most operators are charging more than the regular fares,” said Rahul Shah, a resident of Koramangala.

Travel fares, usually a stable affair, become fluid during holidays. In some cases, small operators change fares within a few minutes.

“I had to travel to Chennai for some urgent work on Thursday and the train was delayed till the next morning. Bus operators started demanding 1.5 times the usual fare,” said Srividya M.

RTO officials say that this practice is a violation of the permit conditions. “While the government has not fixed fares for contract carriages, there is a fixed rate per kilometre based on the distance. We can take action against the operator if the fare is exorbitant,” said J. Gnanendra Kumar, Joint Commissioner (Transport), Bengaluru.

Explaining what the RTO would consider an ‘exorbitant’ fare, Mr. Kumar said that it depended on how far the fare charged deviated from the fixed rate in the permit conditions. “These contract carriages are also not supposed to issue tickets and deboard, or take on passengers in between the trip,” he said.

In the past one week, 550 cases have been booked against bus operators for various permit violations. Mr. Kumar said, “If anyone has specific information about overcharging, they can email the RTO and we can take action, including issuing notices to the operators.”

Notably, according to the RTO, issuing tickets is a violation of the rules, but it is common among operators who have even started issuing e-tickets in the past few years.