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Your email address will not be published.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

Chennai’s ₹697 crore electric buses: Do they serve people who need it most?

While Chennai has invested crores in cleaner buses, public documents do not show if this deployment has improved mobility in high-density wards.

When Chief Minister M K Stalin flagged off Chennai's first batch of low-floor electric buses in June 2025, the programme was presented as a major step towards cleaner and more modern public transport. The first phase alone involves acquring 625 electric buses at a reported cost of ₹697 crore. The fleet includes 400 non-air-conditioned and 225 air-conditioned buses and is being operated from five depots: Vyasarpadi, Perumbakkam, Central, Tondiarpet-I and Poonamallee. The investment is substantial. Chennai has not inducted a fleet of this size in years. The buses are low-floor, wheelchair accessible and equipped with passenger information systems, CCTV cameras…

Similar Story

Riding the Chennai Metro is a breeze, but last-mile connectivity remains a worry

Chennai needs a unified transit system to ensure seamless travel for metro commuters on either side of the journey.

Stepping off the Thirumangalam metro at 6.45 pm, the train ride seemed effortless. It was cool, fast, and on time, taking just fifteen minutes from the office. Now comes the hard part. Standing at the station exit, finding a ride home is a struggle, as I switch between three apps to book an auto. The metro feeder bus only runs every 40 minutes and has just left. By the time I reach home, the "fast" metro trip has cost an extra half-hour and ₹120 in surge-priced rides, a last-mile problem the metro itself was built to solve. This is the…