The Odisha government today slashed bus fares across categories by one paise per kilometer.
Transport Minister Ramesh Majhi today announced a reduction in bus fares across ordinary, express, deluxe, and AC categories.
The announcement was made a day after the Centre announced reduction in prices of petrol and diesel. However, this reduction of fare is based on the technical committee report on the previous decline in fuel price on November 5, 2014.
“The government will take another decision on the reduction of fuel price yesterday,” the minister said.
After the reduction, fare for ordinary buses has come down from 60 to 59 paise per km, while fare of express buses from 63 to 62 paise per km, deluxe buses from 83 to 82 paise and AC buses from Rs 1.02 to Rs 1.01 per km, official sources said.
The private bus owners have welcomed the government’s decision.
All Odisha Private Bus Owners Association spokesperson Debashis Nayak said for bus owners reduction of fares is beneficial as it increases affordability and boosts demand for bus services.
The association urged the government to create an automatic fare adjustment mechanism for effective and timely implementation of price changes.
When the price of diesel had come down by Rs 9.17 in four revisions during the second half of 2014, the state government had reduced the bus fare by only 4 paisa per km.