15 Jul 11: People have already been hit by the increase in price of LPG and petrol. Now, they are even affected with a blow of hike in bus fares. The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) increased the bus fares in the state and the new fares will be in effect from July 16, 2011. The corporation proposed the change in order to cover the burden it faced due to the diesel price hike.
The bus fares of city buses including Ordinary, Metro Express and Metro Deluxe services have remained same for the first 10 km. However, there will be Rs. 2 increase in the fare for every 2 km. The fare of bus passes too have gone up by Rs. 50. The only amicable part is that the fare of student bus passes has not been changed. Also, the City Sheetal services escaped from the fare hike. Moreover, the minimum fare of these services has been reduced to Rs. 10 from Rs. 15.
There has also been no change in the minimum fare of Pallevelugu, Deluxe, Express, Super Luxury and Garuda services. But, the fare of Pallevelugu services after 20km travel has been increased from 46 paise to 50 paise. The hiked prices of Express, Deluxe and Super Luxury services are found to be 62 paise, 72 paise and 82 paise respectively. Even, the Garuda services have experienced a fare hike from 125 paise to 140 paise indicating 15 paise increase per km. Passengers moving for longer distances from Hyderabad to other areas of the city, Bangalore and other areas are to face a fare hike of Rs. 50.
On the whole, the corporation enhanced the fares by 9.5% to cover the losses associated with 24.5% hike in diesel price since February 2010. The burden of the diesel price hike was found to be Rs. 744 crore for the corporation. However, the bus fare hike would only provide Rs. 538 crore additional income thereby leaving the corporation with a loss of Rs. 200 crore.