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Cashing in on the festival rush, bus operators, including state-owned Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), are making a killing by jacking up bus fares from the City to various places across the State.

While the private bus operators have increased the fares as high as three to four times the actual fares, KSRTC is not far behind by charging 10 per cent more on each ticket in the name of running additional buses for clearing festival rush.
 The private bus operators have gone a step ahead by hiking bus fares a la flight ticket fares which are jacked up every festival season, leaving people with no choice but to spend extra on the travel.

Sample this: a single journey ticket from Bangalore to Davangere on October 22 ranges from Rs 800 to Rs 2,600 depending on the private operator. Similarly, a single journey ticket between Bangalore and Hubli on October 23 ranges from Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,300.

 Private operators and KSRTC are justifying the hike with   the plea that on the return journey, most of these additional buses will ply empty.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, N Sangappa, Chief Traffic Manager, KSRTC, said: “We are plying additional 1,500 buses and the 10 per cent hike is on the fares of these buses as most of them will return empty. Under existing norms, there is a provision for a 50 per cent fare hike but we only increase by 10 per cent during festival season.”

A manager with a private operator, having over 100 multi-axle Volvo buses, said: “The minimum hike in fares in the festival season is Rs 300. The bus fares in the range of Rs 2,000-3,500 are for long distance buses plying up to Mumbai and Jodhpur. Once these buses drop off the passengers, there is no guarantee that there will be return  passengers from such far-off places; so we cover the risk. Otherwise, we end up losing Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000 per trip.”

The arbitrary hike in fares in festival season by the private bus operators is in spite of the government constituted a committee.