Omni buses fleece passengers returning after Pongal holidays

With the cancellation of the bus services on Sunday leading to increased demand, the omnibuses hiked the fares by two to three times the usual fares.

From Madurai to Chennai a non-AC seater omnibus fares costs between Rs 799 to 1600 on Monday while the AC Sleeper tickets were sold up to Rs 2100. Government-run SETC buses charges Rs 920 for an AC Sleeper ticket and Rs 459 for ultra deluxe seater buses.

Govindasamy, a native of Tirunelveli said that the omnibuses fleece the passengers during the festival season. “With the limited train services available for the southern districts, most of the people who have migrated to Chennai for work would be travelling to their hometowns during the Pongal and Deepavali. If the trains tickets are not available, the omnibuses are the only option to visit their natives but the private operators hike the prices by two to three times. The government should fix a nominal bus fare for the omnibuses or should introduce more SETC AC buses,” he said.

Private AC seater and sleeper bus fares from Trichy to Chennai were sold up to 1500 and 1800 while the SETC operates the AC sleeper and seater at the fares of Rs 620 and Rs 435 respectively. From Coimbatore to Chennai, omnibuses AC sleeper tickets fares ranged between 1500 and 1800 as against the normal fare of Rs 800 to Rs 1100.

“Though the government has instructed that the buses should be operated with 75 per cent of seating capacity, all the seats were occupied in the omnibuses. Even then the bus operators were hiking the fares so steeply,” a passenger lamented.

An omni bus operator said that even the state corporation operates buses during the weekends and public holidays on increased tariff as against normal days, only the omnibuses were being singled out. “The cost of diesel has gone up and maintenance cost have increased. We have no option but to increase the ticket fare to continue in the business considering the losses suffered during the lockdown,” the operator added.

A senior transport department official said that they were acting against the omnibuses charging exorbitant fares based on the complaints filed by the passengers.