Private buses at Baramunda bus stand in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Cuttack, Oct. 6: Bus fares in Odisha are likely to go up with the technical committee of the transport department today recommending a hike.

“We have sent our proposal to the state government. The government is likely to take a decision on this shortly,” said a member of the technical committee. In the wake of diesel price hike, the Private Bus Owners’ Association has been demanding a hike in bus fares and has even threatened to go on an indefinite strike from October 14 if the government does not increase the fares.

Officials of the association and the Odisha State Road Transport Corporation attended the high-level meeting of the technical committee held here today. Among other things, the input costs in running the buses and the kind of impact it would have on fares were discussed, said transport commissioner S. Kumar.

Private Bus Owners’ Association secretary Debendra Sahoo said: “We have demanded that the state government either waive tax on diesel or hike bus fares keeping in view the high cost of operation of running the buses.”

The association maintains that running buses has become unviable because of the high cost of operation and hike in diesel prices by Rs 5.97 per litre.

“Over 12,000 buses in the state will remain off the roads if the state government does not waive service tax on diesel or hike bus fares,” a member of the association said.

Under such circumstances, a hike in bus fares seems imminent, as the waiving of service tax would result in loss of revenue to the state government.

Sahoo said 2,000 buses had already been grounded, as the owners were not able to sustain the high cost of operating them. “Though fares of city buses were revised immediately after the diesel price hike, the government is yet to take a final call on our demands for a fare hike,” Sahoo said.