Private bus operators submit letter to Transport minister

Kolkata: Demanding a fare hike, private bus operators submitted a letter along with comparative fare structure to state Transport minister Firhad Hakim.

"We handed over the comparative bus fare statement (Pre-Covid era, initial pandemic days and the present second wave of COVID-19 days) mentioning the operational cost of buses to Hakim at Transport Bhawan on Thursday," said Rahul Chatterjee, general secretary of All Bengal Bus Minibus Samannay Samity. However, the bus operators have also assured that more number of private buses will ply on roads from Saturday.

"6,000 private buses, including minibuses, used to run in the city. At present, only 20 percent of these buses are running in the city. From Saturday, 30 percent more buses will hit the roads," said Surajit Saha, vice-president of Bengal Bus Syndicate.

Hailing the state government's decision to exempt road tax of private buses and minibuses, Tapan Banerjee, general secretary of Joint Council of Bus Syndicate, said: "It (exemption of road tax) is not sufficient. Every day, approximately Rs 32 per day is spent on road tax. In case of long-distance buses, Rs 40 is spent. We have to pay road tax quarterly (90 days)."

The private operators further demanded that the state government should give Rs 2 lakh renmoney (loan) to the bus owners to restart services (to be spent for changing battery, tyres and servicing of buses, which did not run for over 45 days due to lockdown to curb COVID-19 cases in the state).

"The diesel price shot up more than Rs 15 during the last one-and-a-half-years and the fare is same. We urge Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to write to the Central government to reduce fuel prices," pointed out Banerjee. Earlier, the private bus operators claimed that the ticket sale proceeds will not even cover diesel and maintenance costs if they run their vehicles abiding by the government order with 50 per cent seating capacity at a time from July 1. There are 42,000 buses and 6,000 minibuses in the state. At least 50–60 litre diesel is required to run a bus on a particular route. The seating capacity of the private bus is 39 and a minibus is 27. The minimum fare of a private bus is Rs 7 (0-4 kilometre). The minimum fare of a minibus is Rs 8 (0-3 kilometre).