Compounding the miseries of the common man, the bus fares in Odisha have been hiked in view of the steep rise in the fuel prices. The bus fare has been increased as per the automatic mechanism, senior officials of the private bus owners’ association said on Thursday.
The fare of ordinary and express buses have been increased by 3 paisa per kilometre. The passengers will now have to pay 6 paisa extra per kilometre for travelling in A.C Deluxe and 9 paisa for the super premium bus category.
As per the revised rates, the ordinary buses will now charge passengers 90 paisa per kilometre against the existing fares of 87 paisa per kilometre. The revised bus fares have already come into effect from today.
The express buses will charge 94paisa/km against the previous rate of 91paisa/km. Similarly, the deluxe and A.C Deluxe fare has been increased to Rs 1.31/km and Rs 1.59/km. The passengers were earlier paying a fare of Rs 1.25/km for travelling in Deluxe and Rs 1.53/ km for travel in A.C Deluxe buses in the State.
The passengers will now have to pay Rs 2.47/km against the previous rate of Rs 2.39/km for travelling in Super Premium buses.
It is pertinent to mention here that Petrol and diesel rates continued to soar as state-owned oil retailers hiked the fuel prices for the ninth time in the last 10 days on Thursday. The petrol and diesel prices have been increased by 80 paise, taking the overall increase to Rs 6.40 per litre.