A city bus depot in Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 24: Commuters will have to pay more for a ride on a city bus from Friday onwards.

The government has also decided that henceforth there will be an automatic revision of fare if fuel prices rise by five per cent. However, the fare of the newly introduced air-conditioned city buses, popularly known as DTS Redline, has not been increased.

The housing and urban development department notification reads that the revised minimum fare is Rs 7 instead of Rs 6 for a distance of 3km and the maximum fare is now Rs 47 instead of Rs 43 for a distance of more than 30 km.

While people travelling between 15 and 21km will have to pay Rs 2 more than the existing fare, those travelling between 21 and 30km will have to shell out Rs 3 more. For any distance more than 30km, the fare would be Rs 4 more than the existing one.

The operators of the city bus service, Dream Team Shahara (DTS), said that the fare had been revised for the third time since its inception on October 10, 2010, in Bhubaneswar.

Last time the fare was revised in October 2013 and since then the diesel prices have gone up by over Rs 7.50 per litre.

While the fare of private buses was revised last month, the city bus fare had not been revised this year despite the operators writing letters to the government to take immediate steps to reduce their losses.

Sudhansu Jena, chief executive officer of DTS, said they were incurring huge losses due to the fuel price hike and non-revision of the fares. “We had appealed to the government to increase the fare and come up with an automatic fare revision formula. The government took the decision after taking everything into consideration,” said Jena.

The new rule will allow the operator to revise the fares automatically whenever the fuel price goes up or comes down by 5 per cent. Though the automatic fare revision brings smile to the operators, commuters are not very happy with the revision.

Sumitra Nanda, a commuter, said while the fare of auto-rickshaw and private buses were higher, the city buses was cheaper. “The hike will affect daily passengers like me. Everyday I have to pay Rs 2 more,” said Nanda.

Sourav Muduli, another commuter, said the fare hike was a necessary step and would not affect passengers. When the auto-rickshaw operators demand arbitrary fares, people do not complain about it. “The way diesel price are soaring, the fare revision is necessary. However, the automatic fare revision rule may affect people in the long run,” said Muduli.

However, the authorities have not increased the fares of air-conditioned city buses, popularly known as DTS Redline, as these were introduced this year. Currently, 12 AC buses are plying on three routes connecting different places in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Puri.

The city bus service today started operating buses between Bhubaneswar and Jatni. Ten buses would ply on the route. While five buses will go Jatni using the national highway 5, the remaining buses will run via Sundarapada.