Bhubaneswar, Aug. 19: The government today revised fares of buses plying across the state with effect from September 1.

The fares have been hiked following private bus owners’ ultimatum to the governmentto go on strike from today midnight.

According to the notification issued by the transport department, the ordinary and express bus fares (see chart) will go up by 5 paise a kilometre while the fare of deluxe buses will increase by 7 paise and air-conditioned buses by 8 paise.

The private bus fare was last revised in October last year when the diesel price was Rs 55.63 a litre. Over the past 10 months, diesel price has gone up by Rs 7.26 a litre. The private bus owners had been demanding a fare revision for the last two months.

The private bus owners, however, postponed their proposed strike on August 9 in view of floods and gave an ultimatum to the state government to meet their demands by August 19. All-Odisha Private Bus Owners’ Association, though happy over the fare revision, criticised the government’s decision to implement it from September 1.

“The government took the decision very late at a time we are incurring heavy losses every day. Now, they are going to implement it after 13 days without sparing a thought about our problems,” said Debasis Nayak, spokesperson of the association.

The association is also miffed about government having overlooked their other demands. The association had given the government a nine-point charter of demands for consideration. “We will give the government 45 days to take steps on the other demands,” said Debendra Sahoo, general secretary of the association.

Besides fare revision, the association had demanded an automatic mechanism keeping in mind frequent hike in price of diesel and other inputs, transfer of permit and withdrawal of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM)-sponsored bus service between cities where private buses operate.

The passengers, however, are not happy with the bus fare hike. They said that this would put extra financial burden on them.

“The authorities succumbed to the pressure of private bus owners. The increase should not have been so steep,” said Subhakant Rout, a commuter.

Snigdha Sucharita, another commuter, said: “The fare was hiked last year and now it has gone up again. They will increase it again after a few months. We the passengers will suffer because of this.”