Your child’s school picnic to be dearer; bus owners to up rates

With the everrising fuel prices, we are not able to run our service at old rates. We have revised the rates as diesel price shows no sign of falling. ANIL GARG, president of the ETOA

MUMBAI:THE increase in fuel prices led to parents shelling out more money for their wards’ school bus fees. Now they will have to shell out more for their school picnics too, starting next month.

With the price of diesel touching ₹78.41 per litre on Monday, private operators handling field visits and educational tours for schools have decided to increase their transport charges from October 1 this year.

The Educational Tour Operators Association (ETOA), a body of bus owners, announced that there will be an increase of ₹100 per child in the bus expenses for picnics. “With the ever-rising diesel prices, we are not able to afford to provide our services at the old rates. We have thus revised the rates as the price shows no sign of falling,” said Anil Garg, president of the ETOA.

Garg said that for a typical 40-seater bus, the revised bus fees per head would be ₹300-400, from the earlier ₹200. Recently, the School Bus Owners Association (SBOA) had announced a hike of ₹75 per month. “We understand that the burden of the hike will again fall on the parents but we are helpless,” added Garg.

Vandana Shukla, a parent from Andheri said: “With this, it would simply be unaffordable for private schools to conduct any picnics as most students cannot afford such high costs.”