Kolkata bus owners seek Rs 18 minimum fare in first revision since 2018

Private bus owners in West Bengal have asked the state government to raise the minimum bus fare in Kolkata to Rs 18, in a letter sent to Transport Minister Arjun Singh on Monday, Bengali news sites Asianet News Bangla and Bangla Hunt reported. Official bus fares in the state have not been revised since 2018.

The letter, from the Joint Council of Bus Syndicates and signed by its general secretary, Tapan Bandyopadhyay, sets out a full fare chart for Kolkata and the districts. The government has not announced a decision, and no date has been set for any new fares, Asianet News Bangla reported.

What the owners want

For ordinary buses in Kolkata, the proposal is:

• up to 4 km: Rs 18
• 4 to 6 km: Rs 20
• 6 to 8 km: Rs 22
• 8 to 12 km: Rs 24
• 12 to 16 km: Rs 26
• 16 to 20 km: Rs 28
• 20 to 22 km: Rs 30

In the districts, the owners want ordinary buses to charge Rs 20 for the first 4 km and Rs 1.20 a km after that, and express buses Rs 25 for the first 4 km and Rs 1.50 a km after that. They proposed Rs 40 for the first 4 km on ordinary air-conditioned buses and Rs 50 for the first 2 km on Volvo buses, and asked for minibus fares in Howrah, Asansol, Durgapur, Malda and Darjeeling to be reset urgently.

The owners cite higher costs for fuel, spare parts, insurance and maintenance. According to Bangla Hunt, they also say buses run only about 270 days a year while costs such as staff wages, tyres, quarterly road tax, loan repayments, annual fitness certificates and insurance keep rising.

What passengers pay now

What a Kolkata commuter actually pays already differs from the official chart. A section of the transport department told Bangla Hunt that operators now charge a minimum of Rs 15, rising to Rs 18 with distance, without government approval, and that the state was aware of this. In September, PTI reported that the government-set fare for the first stage was Rs 7, while private operators charged Rs 10 under an unofficial arrangement. The Declaration could not find a published official fare schedule to settle the difference.

Background

The demand follows a meeting on 14 September between Singh and bus operators' groups, including the Joint Council of Bus Syndicates and the West Bengal Bus and MiniBus Owners' Association. "I think the bus fare hike is long overdue. We will take a decision after Durga Puja," the minister said then, according to PTI. He also said operators should offer better services, and that state-run transport undertakings, which are making heavy losses, should have raised fares earlier.

At that meeting, P. N. Bose of the West Bengal Bus and MiniBus Owners' Association told PTI that operators could not "survive on the 2018 fares in 2026", with diesel above Rs 100 a litre. He said about 3,500 private buses now ran in Kolkata, down from about 6,000 before the Covid-19 pandemic. Operators have also blamed free travel for women on government buses for a fall in passengers.

No passenger groups or opposition parties had publicly responded to the new proposal by Monday night.

What happens next

The minister is expected to weigh the proposal against the cost to commuters before any decision, according to Bangla Hunt. Any fare change would need a government notification. Durga Puja, after which the minister had promised a decision, ended last month.