Private buses in Kolkata will stay off roads during afternoon and at night from Monday to Wednesday to protest the "increasing losses" and demanding a hike in the fares. The private bus operators in Kolkata and adjoining districts have demanded a hike in fares to cop up with the rising fuel prices. They have demanded to raise the minimum fare for the first three kilometres to Rs 9 in case of local buses, and Rs 11 for the long distance ones. As many as 8500 buses are expected to be part of the protest. “From October 29 to 31st, buses will ply only during peak hours. Buses will be available only from 8 am-11 am and 3 pm-7 pm. The number of passengers are very less in the afternoon. The government buses are normally off roads during this time and private buses have to bear the loss,” Tapan Banerjee of Joint Council of Bus Syndicate told The Indian Express. “If the government fails to respond to the strike, we will have a Mahamichil (Rally) on Novermber 1 from Lenin Sarani to Dorena Crossing where we will walk bare chest,” Tapan said. “Bus operators are under huge loss. We are not able to even buy clothes and let people realize our painful situation,” he said. Bus operators said they have no plan to go on a complete strike because it will badly affect the commuters. The operators added that they are ready to hold meeting with the state transport department to resolve the issue. However, transport department officials said that sufficient number of buses will be arranged on these days. “Commuters won't have a problem. If there are less number of private buses, we will ensure that adequate number of government buses are there ”, said an official of transport department. The bus operators said that they had given a deadline of October 24 to increase the fares. Since nothing significant was done by the government, they have decided to go on a bigger protest. The state government had increased the transport fare by Rs 1 in each stage in June. The fares were hiked earlier in 2014. Presently, the minimum fare for the first three kilometres is Rs 8. “The situation is such that now you have to think for alternative earnings if you are in this (bus service) business. It is high time the government hike fares to an extent so that we can survive and continue with our services," a bus operator said. According to the operators, after bearing fuel cost, the wages of driver and conductor, the EMI on bus loan and other expenses, the owners are left with no profit. Fuel prices hike has forced operators to adopt various means to cut spending on fuel, sources said. “Go slow trip” is one of the means under which the bus owners have decided to reduce their number of trips.
