Bus fare hike decision to be announced by Aug 5

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Transport Minister V S Sivakumar has said that the decision on the hike in bus fare will be announced on August 5. He made this announcement after discussions with the representatives of various associations of bus operators here on Wednesday. The meeting also did not arrive at a consensus on increasing the concession rates for students.  The bus operators have threatened to go on an indefinite strike from August 6 if a decision on bus fare hike was not taken before August 5.The issue of bus charge hike will come up for discussions in the next cabinet meeting.  The Minister would hold discussions with representatives of students organisations on the proposed hike in concession charges on Friday. The expert committee to study the bus fare hike had proposed the fixing of concession for students at 25 percent of the bus charge. Sivakumar said that the State Government had not yet taken a decision on increasing the bus fare. The expert committee appointed for studying the hike had recommended the fixing of minimum charge at Rs 5. However, the bus operators demanded that it should be fixed at Rs 6. The bus operators had also asked for increasing the charge per kilometre from 55 paise to 65 paise. However, the expert committee was against increasing the bus charge per kilometre.