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The State Cabinet has on Wednesday given its go-ahead to an expert committee proposal for hiking minimum bus fare from Rs 4 to Rs 5.
Briefing newspersons on business transacted at the meeting, the Chief Minister, Mr Oommen Chandy, announced that the fare stage for the minimum fare has similarly been revised upwards by 2.5 km to five km.
STUDENTS' FARE
On the contentious issue of the minimum rate for concessional fare to students, he said that status quo would prevail.
“There will be no change in the minimum rate of concessional fare provided to students. About the only notional change that one could think of here is that necessitated while rounding off fare to 25 paise,” he said.
This is on account of the fact that the Reserve Bank of India has recently taken out the 25 paise coin from circulation.
Earlier, the Justice Ramachandran Committee had recommended that the minimum fare should be hiked to Rs 5.
FUEL PRICE LOAD
But bus operators have been citing subsequent revisions in fuel prices and demanding that the minimum rate should be fixed at Rs 6.
They have also been equally adamant that the student concessional fare should also be revised upwards from the current 50 paise.
The Chief Minister also announced that the Cabinet has decided to customise and re-promulgate the Anti-Defection Ordinance for application in the local-self government bodies in the State. The aim was to bring the local bodies also in line with the principles and practice of comparable legislations in vogue not only in the State Assembly but also in Parliament.
METRO RAIL
In other decisions, the State Cabinet approved the grant of Rs 25 crore to the Kochi Corporation to help with acquisition of land for the proposed metro rail project in the city. This is expected to speed up the development of the Thammanam-Pulleppadi road in the neighbourhood.
Traffic would be diverted to this road once the work on widening the North Overbridge, the busiest stretch on the arterial M. G. Road, is taken up.
Meanwhile, the National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (Natpac) has been asked to conduct a feasibility study for a proposed mono rail project for the city of Thiruvananthapuram.
MONO RAIL
The project will span a distance of 28 km to Kazhakoottam, around which the infotech corridor is developing, with Balaramapuram in the south.
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