Bus fare to be taken as per 2018 chart: Min

Kolkata: State Transport minister Snehasis Chakraborty asked the private bus operators to hang the 2018 issued bus fare chart in all private buses, as per the court directives. The department will keep a strict vigil to see that the order is followed.

Chakraborty on Friday had met with the Joint Forum of Transport Operators which includes bus and minibus associations who had once again raised the bus fare issue.

The General Secretary of All Bengal Bus Minibus Rahul Chatterjee and others had urged the minister to raise the bus fare.

The state government has no plan to increase the bus fare at the moment, he said. “Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had specified the fare chart in 2018 because the bus owners’ could not reach a common ground which could be accepted by all. An abnormality was seen in terms of bus fare and it was then the Chief Minister had to step in while thinking about the common people’s access to bus facility,” Chakraborty

had said.

However, the bus owners’ associations are at loggerheads with the state department over the increase in bus fares. Chatterjee on Friday had stated that if the fares were not increased in three weeks, then buses and minibuses will not be visible on the road.

Around 27,000 private buses and minibuses are being operated across the state.