MSRTC TO HIKE BUS FARES BY 18% AFTER RISE IN FUEL PRICES

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has announced an 18% fare hike on buses due to rise in fuel prices and higher wage bill for its staff.

The passengers will have to pay more on the state-owned buses including the air-conditioned luxury buses, Shivneri and Shivshahi, from June 15.

Due to the hike, the Mumbaipune journey on Shivneri and Shivshahi buses is likely to cost ₹510 and ₹300 instead of ₹430 and ₹253, respectively.

MSRTC will implement the hike by rounding off the fare in the multiples of ₹5, which means that passengers will be charged ₹10 if the fare for specific distance is ₹8 and ₹5 if it calculates to₹7.

With this fare hike, private buses and inter-city buses will get costlier. While fixing the fare of private buses, the state government recently allowed the private bus operators to charge 50% more fare than MSRTC buses, irrespective of the class of the buses.

Similarly, the fare of MSRTC buses on other inter-city routes will go up on other intercity routes too.“earlier the corporation had proposed 30% fare hike due to additional financial burden, but to avoid pinching the passengers’ pockets, we decided to hike bus fare by 18%, said Divakar Raote, transport minister of the state and chairman of MSRTC. Raote said that they have requested chief minister Devendra Fadanvis and finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar to give concession in taxes, levied on diesel, to the public transport corporation and both have responded in a positive manner. If it happens, the fare of MSRTC buses will be revised again.