TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Inter-State bus fares, have burnt a hole in the pockets of commuters, especially if they travel on weekends, with tickets touching Rs 1,400 one way, with the trend likely to continue.
Tickets for Volvo buses with sleepers were sold at prices between Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,400, irrespective of the distances travelled, while tickets on the Volvo (seaters) were priced between Rs 950 to Rs 1,000.
While bus operators say this is an annual seasonal trend of hiking bus fares by more than 25 per cent, they claim that inbound business was not too good. Damodar Mangle, Manager for Neeta Travels said, “We had more outbound business this time with people going to Sawantwadi, Kudal, Kolhapur.”
The bus fares on these routes were also equally high. “Inbound business was down,” Mangle added.
The interstate bus operators claim that the trend of a hike in weekend tickets will continue as quite a few upcoming festivities would be adding to extended weekends and the demand for tickets will surge, at least from the student community looking for weekend getaways.
Sandip Mirajkar of Taj Travels also said that his agency did not report a rush to Goa or vice versa assuming that rising costs including hike in bus fares may have deterred people from travelling this year.
“Everything has gone up from diesel to spares, maintenance costs so naturally one cannot rule out a hike in bus fares,” he explained.
Mirajkar also felt that this is the only time when bus operators can cash in during the off-season by hiking fares. “It is a fact that bus fares are higher than usual on weekends since the demand is also more,” said another bus operator with a fleet that caters to visitors from Maharashtra and Karnataka.
“This year there were more students on-board,” he said adding that tourists’ influx was comparatively lower. Many from neighbouring States chose their private cars as the cheaper mode of transportation even though fuel prices were hiked during the holidays.
With increasing price of fuel, there is little chance of any concessions being offered even if tickets don’t sell.
The tourism and transport ministries however say that they have little or no say in hiked ticket rates and there is no mechanism to control the same.
