Bus fares hiked in Odisha for fifth time this year

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, June 2:

Over ten days after the last revision, the Odisha government today once again increased bus fares across all categories under the automatic fare adjustment mechanism.

As per a notification issued by the state Commerce and Transport department, the fare for ordinary and express buses has been increased by 1 paisa per kilometre and the fare for Deluxe and AC Deluxe category buses have been increased by 2 paise per kilometre.

With this, the fare for ordinary buses will now be 60 paise per km as against 59 paise per km, the fare of express buses has been increased to 63 paise from 62 paise per km.

Similarly, deluxe category buses will now charge 84 paise per km as against 82 paise earlier and passengers travelling in AC Deluxe buses will have to shell out Rs 1.05 instead of the existing Rs 1.03 paise per km, the notification added.

Notably, the state government has hiked the bus fare for the fifth time this year in a span of five months. The fare was hiked on March 10, March 19, May 3 and May 23.

It may be mentioned here that the state government had announced the implementation of the automatic mechanism for revision of fares on June 4 last year as per the demand of the All Odisha Private Bus Owners’ Association (AOPBOA).

Under the automatic mechanism system, rise and fall in bus fares would be determined based on the rise and fall of fuel prices.