Omni buses hikes fares for Pongal festival irks passengers

CHENNAI: Travelling to their home towns for the Pongal festival turns out to be an expensive one for the passengers with the omnibuses hiking their fares steeply.

Meanwhile, Transport Minister SS Sivasankar who inspected CMBT and Kilambakkam terminus on Friday directed the MTC operators to its small buses freely from the entry gate of Kalaignar Centenary Bus Terminus on the GST road to the terminus entry point for the convenience of passengers.

As people started leaving for their native places from the city on Friday coinciding with the five-day holiday from January 13 to 17 for educational institutions, government offices and private companies, the fares of omnibuses have gone up steeply thanks to huge demand following the shifting of the SETC buses to Kilambakkam terminus.

An analysis of ticket prices on the online bus ticket-selling portal shows several bus operators are selling tickets at fares more than the maximum fare fixed by the All Omni Bus Owners Association.

One of the private operators on the Chennai-Trichy route charged Rs 3230 for an AC sleeper berth on Saturday, and several others charged from Rs 2800 to Rs 2990 for a sleeper berth.

A trip to Madurai on an AC sleeper would cost up to Rs 3230 a passenger while it would be Rs 3,840 for a journey to Tirunelveli.

C Saravanan, a native of Madurai said that an AC sleeper berth would cost around Rs 900 to Rs 1100 from Koyambedu to my native during the normal days.

"During the festival season, the ticket costs are being hiked steeply. I prefer omnibuses as it offer comfort and reliability compared to the transport corporation buses but the fares are being hiked very steeply, " he said.

Some regular travellers on the SETC buses have opted for the omnibuses due to the shifting of the bus operation to the new terminus at Kilambakkam and the strike called by the trade unions.

"From Thiruvottiyur, I have to travel for more than two hours to reach Kilambakkam. During evening peak hours, it will take much longer. Besides, we are not sure of the corporation bus operation due to the strike. So I booked tickets on omnibuses from Koyambedu, " K Rajendran, a school teacher by profession, who is travelling to Thanjavur.

An office bearer of the Omnibus Operators Association said that not all the operators increase the fares very steeply.

"Some operators hike the fares and the blame falls on all of us. If the passengers complain, the Transport Commissioner's office will take action on the operator, " the operators said.

Omni buses are operating 1600 buses to various destinations across the state from the city ferrying 60,000 people while the transport corporation would be operating 3001 buses from the city. About 1.75 lakh people are expected to travel on Friday.