Holiday rush: private bus operators fleece commuters

As the holiday season begins, private bus operators are fleecing commuters as the transport department continues to sit on a proposal to cap fares of buses plying on city, mofussil areas and inter-city routes.

For private buses, long weekends and festival holidays are lucrative as they can double and triple the fares. The usual sleeper class fare to Hubballi from Bengaluru ranges between Rs 600 and Rs 2,000. But it goes up to Rs 4,000 on festival days.

“Those who do not reserve tickets are at the mercy of the staff operating the bus, who jack up fares depending on how desperate you are to get a ticket. The government rules exist only on paper,” said Ishwar Heggeri, a computer operator in a private company who travels to Dharwad twice a month.

Stage carriage permits allow buses to pick up passengers from different places between the origin and destination points.

Though the transport department has capped the fares of all city and intercity buses by notifying fare caps in 2013, no private bus follows the rule.

Moreover, the 2013 notification allowed bus operators to have a field day by leaving fixation of fares for A/C buses to their “discretion”. While state transport corporations, including KSRTC, NEKRTC, NWKRTC and BMTC, play by the rules, they can hardly cater to the holiday rush. Private operators cash in on such opportunities by deploying more buses.

Transport Commissioner B Dayananda said the Regional Transport Office has sent a proposal to the transport department updating maximum and minimum fares for buses with stage carriage permit. “The proposal has been made. It has to be discussed at the government level before a decision is taken,” he said.

Sources in the department admitted that there was no check on bus fares. “We fine bikers and car drivers for various violations. But we are not in a position to take action against buses despite violations as these decisions come from senior officials,” they said, adding that stricter rules were necessary to bring in a change.