APSRTC increases fares

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) has imposed an additional diesel cess, ranging from Rs 5 to Rs 60 per passenger, on various bus services to cover the huge losses on account of the steep increase in the price of diesel

The new fares will be implemented from Friday. The RTC in a press release on Thursday announced that the corporation started collecting diesel cess from April 13, 2022. It said it was incurring additional expenditure of Rs 2.50 crore every day due to increased cost of diesel which rose to Rs 131 per litre by June 29, 2022.

RTC managing director (MD) Dwaraka Tirumala Rao announced that due to unavoidable circumstances the RTC has increased the diesel cess and will collect from the passengers from July 1, 2022.

He said the increased diesel cess to be collected from passengers is based on the distance they travel. He appealed to the passengers to co-operate with the RTC.

As per the decision the city bus charges will not be increased in Vijayawada and Vizag cities. There will be no change for Palle Velugu buses up to 30 km.

The additional diesel cess will be Rs 5 between 35 to 60 km and Rs 10 on passengers travelling 60 to 70 km.

No change for Express services up to 30 km. Extra cess of Rs 5 will be collected between 31 to 65 km and Rs 10 between 66 and 80 km. If the distance is more, the passengers have to pay more cess.

There will be no change in super luxury buses up to 55 km. If the distance is above 55 km, the diesel cess will be collected basing on the distance.

RTC bus passengers travelling to Hyderabad, Vizag, Tirupati and other cities have to pay extra between Rs 60 to Rs 70 depending on the bus services i.e. Garuda, Vennela, Indra.

The RTC has announced that the diesel cess will be collected on pro-rata basis and passengers travelling long distance have to pay more.

The RTC has said that diesel price was Rs 67 per litre in December 2019 and increased to Rs 107 in April 2022.

The diesel price increased to Rs 131 per litre on June 29, 2022 and the RTC is spending Rs 2.50 crore extra every day to operate the fleet of buses. Last time the RTC increased passenger ticket fares was on April 13, 2022.