Deputy Municipal Commissioner T G Jhalavadia said they have also expressed their disappointment with the AMC terminating the contracts of three mini bus operators.

Jhalavadia, who also holds charge of transport manager in AMTS, said that though the number of buses plying in the city would go down to more than half the current fleet, efforts would be made to see that people did not suffer any hardship because of the proposed strike.

Out of the 538 CNG buses, the AMC has terminated the contract of three operators - Maruti, Neelam and Shreeji - who had rented out 34 buses to the corporation. Operators of another 34 buses have offered to back out from the contract and return the subsidy to get the buses released. This in effect leaves AMC with 470 buses. AMC has its own fleet of only 400 buses plying on the city roads.

Asked if the strike was observed as threatened, he said the civic body was prepared to meet any situation even if the strike went on for a fortnight or even for a month. The preliminary termination order was served on three operators a year ago and they were given time of six months to mend their ways but they showed no improvement and break down rate also remained high in the case of these mini buses, Jhalavadia said. The private operators have demanded that the AMC should make payments of bus rents on time and that they should be allowed to come in the afternoon if they failed to turn up in the morning shift, said Jhalavadia, ruling out any such concessions.

He said the operators were also disturbed over the deduction of money from their rents for reporting late, besides another major issue of who should bear the service tax. The AMC has been insisting that private operators pay the service tax, and that the corporation would reimburse it later on.