As the polling date comes closer, private buses have increased the fares in TN
Posted on: 05/Apr/2019 9:41:46 AM
Casting their votes is very important and many people travel to their native places from Chennai to cast their votes. The news is private buses have increased the bus fares now taking this situation into their advantage. It is worthy to mention here that as the polling date extends into 4 day weekend, private omni bus operators have increased their bus fares up to 70 percent during the poll week.
For travelling one way from Chennai to places like Coimbatore and Madurai in a/c private buses a person has to shell out Rs 2000. The point is on average a person has to spend a minimum amount of Rs 1000 to travel in a decent bus. This was as per the fare chart hosted in a popular ticket booking site `Red Bus`. One interesting piece of information is on the normal days the bus fares would be Rs 600 to Rs 800 only. It is now revealed that the government has promised to take action against those bus operators who demand high bus fares. The point to be noted is the bus operators have not bothered at all about this customary warnings issued by the government.
According to a person residing in Velachery but belonging to Madurai, this sudden increase in the tickets had made many to think twice about travelling to their native places for the sake of casting their votes. Relying on the tatkal tickets in the trains is the only solution for this now. The demand for tatkal tickets is so high that it is not easy to get a ticket in this situation. As per the private bus operators, the application of peak pricing only during the extended weekends would bring them good profits
A Chennai based bus operator expressed his views regarding the hike in the bus fares now. He spoke about how on an average it costs about Rs 2.5 per kilometer of distance for a passenger travelling in a/c bus. He then explained how they charge just Rs 15 per kilometer of distance on normal days and Rs 2 per km on weekends/festival days.
It was pointed out by the state transport department that the private bus operators would be penalized for charging high bus fares. Some legal experts have expressed their thoughts and said without amending rules the state would not have any power to bring the private bus operators under their control. The point is all the cases filed so far are for violation of taxes and road permit.
