Bhubaneswar, Oct. 27: The state government could not take a decision regarding reduction of private bus fares at a meeting held at the secretariat today.

“The technical committee is discussing different aspects of the issue before it takes a final decision. It will be announced very shortly,” said commerce and transport minister Ramesh Majhi.

Earlier on Saturday, an emergency meeting of the technical committee of the State Transport Authority was held where the decision on fare reduction was taken. However, the cut is yet to be finalised.

The technical committee consists of financial advisors to the state government, officials of Odisha State Road Transport Corporation and State Transport Authority and secretary of All Odisha Private Bus Owners’ Association.

Debendra Sahu, secretary of the private bus association, said they had no problem with fare cut.

The bus owners have been demanding an automatic fare revision formula keeping the central government’s decision to de-regularise diesel.

“Government should evolve a formula that will enable us to revise fare whenever there is a change in the price of diesel. The government authorities discussed about it on Saturday and have agreed to give it more thought,” said Sahu.

Sources in the transport department said the fare might go down by 2 or 5 paisa per kilometer.

Once the decision gets the chief minister’s nod, it will be made effective.

“The final decision will be made public within a day or two,” said officials.

Besides the technical committee today also held a discussion on the new Road Transport and Safety Bill- 2014 proposed by the central government. Sahu said they raised concern over certain aspects of the bill.