lcds-Belagavi-news

Wahi Purani story of Bus fare hike on Holidays

Photo of author

The revision in fare of private luxury buses seems to have dampened the holiday mood of thousands of people who planned to visit their native for a holiday on August 15.

Sachin had all planned it right to come to Belgaum on August 15, but when we went to book the tickets from Bangalore to Belgaum for August 14, he got a shock. Speaking to the blog he said, “I need to shell 2550 as I take the late bus at 11pm for which the cost is 850 which normally is 600”.
VRL, SRS and many others had hiked their fares almost by 50% for that particular day only. This is common that bus operators hike the prices upto 100% on previous days of public holidays as many like to travel back home for the holiday.

Just look at the fares:

VRL Sleeper/seater HIKED fare Rs.900/1050 whereas the normal fare is Rs.400/500

VRL AC sleeper HIKED fare Rs.850 whereas the normal fare is Rs.600

VRL Multi axle Volvo HIKED fare Rs.850 whereas the normal fare is Rs. 600

SRS AC Sleeper HIKED fare Rs.850 whereas the normal fare is Rs. 600

SRS Sleeper HIKED fare Rs.770 whereas the normal fare is Rs. 570

busprice

On Shantadurga Travels site, displays no listings for August 14 are visible.

A division bench of Bombay High court of Justice D D Sinha and Justice V K Tahilramani was hearing a PIL filed by a Pune-based NGO, Sahyog Trust, saying “ The charging of exorbitant fares is much prevalent now in the aviation sector and there is no control over there also”.
Bus passengers are not informed about fare hikes and there is no redressal forum for their grievances. The judges remarked that if there is no government control over these buses then their operation must be illegal.

We have being raising this issue for 5 years now, on each of the peak seasons and public holidays the same fare hike is implemented. Many comment on this that the bus operators run in a loss during non peak season and hence increase fares to compensate.

But by no means this can be a statement that can be ratified. If the operators are at a loss they should increase the fares all the year round and not increase the fares for a particular day or two. 

1 thought on “Wahi Purani story of Bus fare hike on Holidays”

Leave a Comment