Bus Fare Hiked In Odisha For Third Time This Year

Photograph: Ashok Panda

Bhubaneswar: With the price of petrol and diesel shooting up across the country, the Odisha government on Monday effected a hike in the fare for all categories of passenger buses as per the automatic fare adjustment mechanism.

“The All Odisha Private Bus Owners’ Association had urged the state government to urgently revise the bus fare in proportion to the hike in the price of the fuel as it would not be feasible for the owners to ply their buses with the previous passenger fare with heavy losses,” general secretary of the Association, Debendra Sahu told mediapersons here.

A notification by the Commerce and Transport department said the fares for Ordinary and Express buses have been hiked by 2 paisa per km, while ha for Deluxe and AC Deluxe category buses by 4 paise per km.

The fare for Ordinary buses will now be 70 paise per km as against 68 paise per km earlier while the fare for Express buses will be 73 paise from 71 paise per km.

Besides, the fare for deluxe buses will be Rs 1.01 per km as against 97 paise while AC Deluxe buses will charge Rs 1.23 instead of Rs 1.19 per km, the notification added.

This is the third time this year that the state government has hiked the bus fare. Earlier, the fare was hiked on January 3 and January 18.