Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
An air of disappointment prevailed amongst the citizens after the private bus/coach (luxury) operators hiked the charges by 15 per cent.
It may be noted that the citizens prefer to visit metro cities to enjoy summer vacation, when they do not get train reservations, they prefer to travel by private luxury buses.
It is learnt that the private operators have relaxation to charge 1.5 times the charges of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) buses. If the limit exceeds then the RTO on the basis of the complaint had to initiate action.
MSRTC operates AC and non-AC buses (only sitting) on different routes. Taking advantage of this the private operators operate sleeper buses on the same route.
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Charges of different routes
Nagpur - Private bus (Rs 720 to Rs 1920 each), ST bus (Rs 776) and Shiv Shahi (Rs 1,095).
Mumbai - Private bus (Rs 800 to Rs 1600), Shiv Shahi (Rs 865).
Pune - Private bus (Rs 590 to Rs 1630), ST bus charge (Rs 359) and Shiv Shahi (Rs 540).
Solapur - Private bus (Rs 500 to Rs 1210), ST bus (Rs 495) and Hirkani bus (Rs 698) and
Latur - Private bus (Rs 500 to Rs 1700), ST bus (Rs 442) and Hirkani bus (Rs 608).
Meanwhile, the disappointed passengers appealed to the RTO whether it will take action against these private travel bus operators for charging huge amounts to them.
According to Bus-Owners Association’s Mohan Amrutkar, “The hike in charges is 15 per cent which is less than our limit of 1.5 times of the charges of the ST buses. Around 250 buses of different travels run on different routes. Of all, the major rush of passengers is noted on routes like Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur.”