Bhubaneswar: Promising the best of the experience for Mo Bus commuters, the Capital Region Urban Transport (CRUT) has decided to continue its services with the reduced AC fares for another two months. CRUT General Manager Dipti Mahapatro informed that AC bus fare which was slashed up to 38% in December 2019 will continue up to March 31, 2020.
The decision to continue Mo Bus services with slashed AC bus fares has been taken to give riders a better experience. "We have gained significant ridership in the last two months. There has been overwhelming response after we reduced AC ticket fares and rationalised the overall fare structure," said Mahapatro.
In November, CRUT's ridership was around 84,000 and revenue around Rs 11.75 lakh. The consistent faith of commuters in Mo Bus has led to a rise in ridership as well as revenue in January with an average of 1 lakh passengers and Rs 12 lakh per day respectively,” she said.
Even though the revenue dropped by 1 per cent in December 2019, compared to November, a consistent growth of 5 per cent is seen till date compared to December.
The CRUT Manager however informed that there has been a 22 per cent boost in AC ridership in December. “While in November, 4.3 lakh people travelled in AC Mo Bus, 5.5 lakh footfall was recorded in the month of December. In January, the growth has been a consistent 9 per cent in AC Mo Bus ridership. As on January 27, 4.7 lakh people have travelled in AC Buses,
Mahapatro further said, “The move is aimed to encourage more commuters to use public transport services which would significantly reduce the number of vehicles on the road as well as bring down the pollution level which will contribute in decreasing carbon footprint in the Capital Region.”
At present, CRUT has a fleet of 200 buses, and this year the network will be expanded and 189 buses of which 50 would be electric, will be added to the fleet.