Bhubaneswar, Feb. 4: The state government today slashed fares of private and government buses by one paisa for every kilometre after 18 days of diesel price reduction and hinted at further decrease following drop in fuel cost.

Though the bus operators welcomed the state government's decision to slash the fare and kept on pressing for their demand for an automatic fare revision formula, commuters seemed unhappy with such a miniscule cut in fares.

"The diesel price, whenever falls, goes down by a huge amount. But, the authorities cut the bus fares by one paisa. The government does not allow people to feel the good things of falling diesel prices. Rather the authorities are working to safeguard the interests of the private bus operators," said Ratikant Subudhi, a daily passenger.

A member of the All Odisha Private Bus Owners' Association said that had the state government decided upon the automatic fare revision formula, it would have been directly brought into effect when the diesel price fell last night. "Now, the government takes time to cut the fares, and in between, the diesel price falls again. The slow process at times irks people," he said.

However, he said they would have been happier had the fares would have gone down more. General secretary of the association Debendra Sahoo said other factors were also responsible for deciding bus fares. "Despite the diesel price going down, the rates of other accessories and products have remained the same. And this forces the government to slash the fares in small measures," said Sahoo.

Last night, the diesel price went down by Rs 2.49 per litre, including local taxes, in the state, and officials would decide upon the fare cut again.

The technical committee that had been looking into the fare revision following slash in diesel price by Rs 2.49 per litre on January 17 approved the fare cut by one paisa per kilometre for all kinds of buses.

Following the cut, the new fare of ordinary buses became 59 paise per kilometre while that of express buses came down to 62 paise per kilometre. The fares for deluxe buses became 82 paise and that of AC deluxe buses came down to Rs 1.01 per kilometre.

Commerce and transport minister Ramesh Majhi said the committee had been examining the fare revision and it came out with its fare reduction report today. "We have reduced the fares, as it will help the passengers. Besides, the committee will again look into the fares following cut in diesel price last night. People will get some good news within a few days," he said.

In another development, commuters travelling in city buses and autorickshaws in the city demanded that the government should take steps for reduction of fares in these two public transports.

"This is interesting to see that the government raised fares for city buses when diesel prices were on high. But, no action has yet been taken for reducing the fares. It seems as if the government is working in collusion with the private operator of the city buses," said Sarita Mohanty, a commuter.

However, the city bus operator have been repeatedly claiming that they have been providing discounts on their smart cards trying to popularise cashless travel. "We will keep on providing discount on our smart cards. It's the state government to decide upon fare reduction," said Sudhansu Jena, CEO of the Dream team Shahara, the private operator of the city bus service.

There is no regulation on autorickshaw fares in the city. The fare is raised by the operators automatically whenever the diesel price go down, but none bothers to reduce the fare when diesel rates fall. A three-wheeler operator said they had approached police, transport officials and housing and urban development department authorities regarding a proper fare structures, but none paid any heed to them.

"We are planning to reduce the fares by ourselves and make people aware about the new fare by distributing leaflets. We do not want passengers to suffer," said Padman Samal, general secretary of the Bhubaneswar Autorickshaw Mahasangha.