With fare hike, BMTC helps people maintain better health!

BMTC's fare hike has prompted him to walk two kilometers, rather than paying 9 rupees, says Siddharth, a student who travels regularly in BMTC.

The increase in fares 15 days back was as usual a hole burner in starting stages – fare of Rs.8 has become rs.9 and fare of Rs.9 is now Rs.12/- but does BMTC really think they make money this way?

Consider my own example here. Travelling from Marathahalli to J P Nagar 6th phase, I get direct bus in mornings – but in return I need to change over at the Marenhalli signal for last 2 kms for which the fare works out to be Rs.9/-. On an average of 3 working days, I generally walk down home for the last strech rather than paying Rs.9 and end up saving Rs.27/- which in turn become useful for travelling some other day.

The monsoon being good, weather is cool and it isn’t a sternous job to walk down all the way especially on days where there has been a slight drizzle. This way, a 15-minute fast walk daily provides me an exercise too to keep my legs and body in flexible working condition.

Apart from this, if I form a group of 2 or even 3, I would pay an auto fare of 25/- which is Rs. 2 lesser compared to the bus fare of 27/-. Auto is better than an overcrowded bus.

Considering these two things, it’s high time BMTC realises that it’s not just increasing fares, but proper rationalisation of fares that will help it recover its loss. 

Yesterday when BMTC reduced basic fare by Re.1/-. a loss of Rs.27 crore per day was considered to take place- but what about the revenue leaks it is going through? Hale and healthy humans will definitely walk down rather than waiting for the bus. Of course expenses have gone up, but they must analyse the measures to increase income rather than just increasing fares

Daily pass has been fixed at Rs.60/-. Of course any person who has to change two buses would normally go in for a pass rather than ticket. When there is no need to change two buses, there is no way one is going to get a daily pass, thus BMTC loses out.

Revenue loss from illegal trading of passes at all places. Fares must be such that passes must be used by people who change 5-6 buses and not a person who changes only once. 

This is just another way to analyse BMTC!!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Similar Story

A four-hour commute: The daily transport struggles of women from Chennai’s resettlement areas

Watch this video to understand how absence of last-mile connectivity and unreliable public transport in Chennai is failing those who need it the most.

Chennai has long had a tradition of public transport usage, with commuters having the choice of the suburban railway network, Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) buses operating in the city and the Metro Rail for their daily transit. Despite the government introducing new services recently, especially electric buses, private vehicles numbers have soared and bus ridership has gone down considerably. Last mile connectivity issues, poor coverage in certain areas and the inability of the government to encourage residents to use public transport are major impediments. In fact, private vehicles make up 65 per cent of all motorised transport in the Chennai…

Similar Story

The infrastructure of waiting: How Bengaluru’s gridlock steals our right to time

Bengaluru needs accessible infrastructure that makes life easier for everyone, not tunnels and corridors built for a privileged few.

Selomi's text arrived at 7 am. "Let's leave by 8.30. The traffic will be brutal otherwise." We both live about 10 kilometres from the government office we had been going to every day for the last two weeks. The nearest metro station is four kilometres from our homes, which means forty minutes to reach it, twenty on the metro, and twenty-five on foot from Vidhana Soudha to the office. An hour and twenty minutes each way, assuming nothing goes wrong. In Bengaluru, something always does. By the end of the second week, we had the routine down. Coffee in a…