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MTC adds 20,000 passengers in 20 days
The Metropolitan Transport Corporation’s decision to publicise the minimum fare – which, at Rs 5, stands lesser than all other modes of city transport, including share autorickshaws – seems to have served the purpose. For, according to senior officials, the State-run corporation has added 20,000 more passengers served by its fleet of ordinary category buses every day.
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Chennai
“Apart from this appreciable increase, the corporation has in total managed to attract 95,000 more commuters since the revision of fare in February,” an MTC official said. The data was derived based on taking an average of the ticket sales.
“The corporation had witnessed a dip in the number of passengers, who were reluctant to take a trip in the white board buses fearing that the fare will burn a hole in their pockets. This was mitigated to an extent when the MTC publicised the minimum fare on the buses,” said P Balakrishnan, the president of State Transport Employees Union.
The increased patronage for the public transport network came also because of the spiraling fuel price hike, which forced the share autorickshaw operators to revise fares upward.
Breaking down the statistics further, MTC officials said that while the occupancy ratio of a single bus per trip was 1,180 passengers, the number went down to 900 after fare revision. “After the new step, it rose to the 1,050 passengers on a bus per trip. This is further expected to increase in the coming days,” Balakrishnan added.
This September, the MTC had begun publicising the minimum fare – Rs 5 – on the windshields of the buses, which coincided with the hike in the fares of share autorickshaws citing increase in fuel prices.
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