School bus fares set to rise next academic year

PUNE: The Pune Bus Owners’ Association on Saturday said that the hike in school bus fares sould come into effect from the next academic year. The owners of vans ferrying children to schools have also said that they would increase rates by at least 20%.


Furthermore, the hike in fares of private buses will be applicable from mid-December. “The fares of buses that are hired for tours, corporate events, functions like marriage or school picnics will be increased by 15% to 20% with immediate effect. The buses will be grouped in the intra-city service bracket. The inter-city services, like daily buses plying between Pune and Mumbai,

Kolhapur

, Bengaluru, and other cities, will revise fares only from mid-December. The owners of these buses, during the period, should take into account their fuel cost and other expenditures and decide the percentage of hike,” Kiran Desai, secretary of the association, told TOI.

On Friday, the association announced a revision in fares of private buses. “When it comes to school buses, payments are made for the entire academic year. hence these fares will be hiked from May, next year. The schools buses and vans fall under the school bus committee that is affiliated to us. So, the fares of the school vans of the

Pune district

will also see a hike from next year on,” Desai added.

Each day, around 400 buses are hired across the city for different services. “You can call them chartered services. Over 4,000 school transport vehicles, including vans, operate in Pune. It has become extremely difficult to operate buses considering the rising fuel costs and other expenditures. The fare hike is being calculated on a per kilometre basis,” said another official of the association.

Nitin Sahni, whose children travel in a van to school, said a hike of 20% seemed quite high. “Each year, the hike is not over 7-10%. A 20% hike is too much as the salaries are not increasing at the same rate,” Sahni said.