6 Jun 11: The RTC has decided to reduce the charges for AC buses, to attract passengers in wake of upcoming ‘off season’. RTC is running 86 AC buses currently in the city, which make 650 trips every day. These buses were supposed to bail out RTC from losses during summer. Due to the high charges, the occupancy ratio (OR) was found to be poor in these buses, it is supposed to 72%, but even in the mid-summer the OR was up to 55%. If this situation continues, the OR will be just 40% in this monsoon season, which is a great concern for RTC.
Hence, to ensure that the RTC does not run into too many losses, it has made few proposals, which include, reducing the minimum fare from Rs.15 to Rs.10, reducing the overall fare by 10%, reducing the monthly bus pass fare from Rs,1600 to Rs,1400 and introducing daily pass for Rs.75 to Rs.80.
Even the ‘mini-buses’ launched by government for improving the transportation facilities for commuters in Old city areas flopped. The occupancy ratio of these buses is very less as most of the passengers mistook these buses to be private due to their green and white color. Hence, the authorities are planning to change the colour to attract customers.
Source: Times of India