Mumbai: The state government has allowed private tour bus operators to charge upto 50 per cent more fare than that charged by State Transport (ST) buses of that category during the tourist season. Tourists will now have to shell out more money for tickets during the peak tourist season - in summer, during Diwali and the Ganesh festivals.
However, the government is very clear that private bus operators don’t have legal right to pick up passengers individually from multiple places and issue tickets. But with thousands of private buses plying illegally and carrying lakhs of passengers, this exercise of fixing fares may just prove to be futile.
The high fares charged by private bus operators led to a PIL being filed in the Bombay High Court, following which the court directed the government to fix the fares of these private bus operators. The Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) was assigned the responsibility to decide the fare formula of private buses.
Considering various aspects like the cost of the bus, repairs, expenses, fares of ST buses and other things, the CIRT has submitted its recommendations. On that basis, the state government has issued orders prescribing the fares. But as per law, private buses can ply on contract basis only and not as a stage carrier, which is the ST.
So this exercise of finalising fares to provide relief is of little use.
