The minimum fare for city buses for 4 km has been kept constant at Rs 4. Whereas the fare for minibuses will be increased to Rs 5 from the existing Rs 4.5 for 2 kilometers.

The existing fare of metered taxi has been increased from Rs 20 to Rs 22 for the first two kilometers and Rs 2 for subsequent 200 meters.

The revised fare chart, which got a nod at the Left Front meeting today, is set to burn a hole in the pocket of the commuters from July 11.

A surcharge has been put on government buses — Rs 5 for 300 km and Rs 10 on the distance exceeding the limit. The amount collected will be used as a corpus to give a compensation of Rs 50,000 to each passenger who is killed in an accident involving these buses.

Announcing the revised fare chart state Transport Minister Subhas Chakraborty said that the bus syndicates would hopefully accept the revised chart.

Left Front chairman Biman Bose said that the fare restructuring has been done keeping in mind that it puts a least burden on the common people.

The transport associations had been pressing for an increased fare after the hike in petrol and diesel prices.

Rabindranath Saha, Vice-President of Bengal Bus Syndicate, however, said the revised fare chart is just an eyewash on the part of the transport department.

“The bus owners will not gain anything from the totally revised fare chart, which the government claims. On the contrary, the government should curb unauthorised autos if they think of doing any good to the busowners,” said Saha.

Trinamool to launch protests
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today criticised the state government for increasing the fares of private buses and taxis.

Calling the move as anti-people, she announced that her party would launch a statewide protest against the hike.

“The state government has hiked the fares at a time when the people are facing hardship due to high inflation rate. Both the Congress government at the Centre and the CPM-led state government are slowly moving away from the people,” said Banerjee at a press conference at her residence in Kalighat today.

She said that her party would launch a statewide protest from July 10.

The Trinamool chief said the fare hike was avoidable and the state government should have reduced the cess on petroleum products in Bengal.