BMTC hikes rates of bus passes

 The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has increased the rates of its daily and monthly passes.

The revised rates will come into effect from May 11 for the daily passes, and from June for the monthly passes. For the daily pass, passengers having passes with ID cards will pay Rs 55 instead of Rs 45, and those having passes without ID cards will pay Rs 60, instead of Rs 50.

For the monthly pass, passengers will pay Rs 100 more. For the pass on black board passes, the new amount will be Rs 725 and for the red board/Pushpak/Suvarna/Big 10 buses, the revised rate will be Rs 825.

For senior citizens, the black board rate has been increased by Rs 90 to Rs 650 per month and the red board/Pushpak/Suvarna/Big 10 the rate has been increased to Rs 830 from Rs 745.

In a release, the BMTC has stated that the hike in the rates has been necessitated by several factors, including the hike in the price of high-speed diesel by Rs 12 per litre for bulk users from January. “Due to this, the BMTC is procuring diesel from retail outlets, resulting in an extra burden on the corporation. As per decision of the Union government, the diesel prices will keep increasing at about Rs 0.60/litre per month. For a six-month period, there will be an increase of Rs 3.60/litre, resulting in a financial implication of Rs 49.68 crore annually,” the BMTC has stated.

It stated that the settlement of employee salaries would result in an additional burden of Rs 129.94 crore per annum.