PESHAWAR, May 15: The NWFP transporters have raised the fare for all routes in violation of the recently issued fare table by the Provincial Transport Authority (PTA).

The government issued a revised fare table for all routes in the province on 7th, but the transporters are continuing to overcharge the passengers by arguing that the new fare table was not justified in the wake of high prices of diesel, break oil, mobil oil, spare parts, bad roads and the bribes they give to traffic police.

According to new fare table, the transporters plying on Peshawar to Pir Baba road are required to charge Rs 40 but they charge Rs 60. The owners of the hiaces say that they had invested Rs 1.6 million on buying a single vehicle and they could not afford to comply with the new PTA’s fare list. They say that the new fares fall too short in meeting their expenses.

“We run our vehicles on mountainous and bumpy road to Pir Baba which consumes more fuel than plain road. Not that only but the bad road take longer period to be covered and affect the vehicle,” said a driver who drives to Pir Baba.

Similarly, the driver running their vehicles from Peshawar to Bannu district charge Rs 80 instead of Rs 56. According to the new fare table, the PTA has fixed 29 paisa per kilometre. The drivers and conductors of some 1,000 hiaces and 4,00 coasters flying  on various roads of the province have also  been reporting of protests by the commuters. “Several times, the passengers enter into brawls with us. We are helpless to fight all the passengers,” said a conductor, Gul Wali Wazir of Bannu district.

The commuters, however, argue that the transporters were in the habit of overcharging the passengers because they paid bribes to the police who in turn gave free hand to them. They also allege that the hiace conductors accommodate 18 passengers instead of their sanctioned quota of 13 seats which created a lot of trouble for the passengers travelling to distant destinations.

“On weekends when the transporters realize that the number of passengers were high as most of the government servants throng the bus stands to reach their villages, they charge almost double fare from the passengers,” said Mohammad Quresh, who said he routinely visited his native city Mardan. According to him, they had complained several times to the police about this problem but no action had been taken and the transporters continued to fleece the passengers.

The new raise in fares by transporters have badly hit the passengers travelling to far off areas like Chitral, Dir, Miran Shah, Karak, Mingora, Tall, Hangu and Malakand. For instance, the PTA has fixed Rs 145 from Peshawar to Chitral whereas the transporters received Rs 250 from one person. For Dir they charged Rs 95 instead of Rs 73 while for Migora the passengers have to pay Rs 65 instead of Rs 50.

In the wake of poor performance of police and other relevant departments, the tussles between passengers and transporters have become frequent. At times passenger complain to police but nothing happens.

According to new fare list, the fares have been fixed according to variations in the POL prices. At present the transporters would charge 29 paisa per kilometre as far as the price of diesel remains below Rs 16.

Likewise, the transporters have to increase the fares as diesel prices rise. The fare table includes prices of diesel with which the transporters  have been authorized to increase  the  fares accordingly. This time, the PTA has chalked out a lengthy list to solve the issue of fare as long as the prices of diesel increase.

 The fare list also describes the would-be fares in case the prices increase from present rate. “We will raise or decrease the fares according to the new fare list,” said a transporter. He said they show the fare list to the passengers to avoid brawls with them but still many of them refuse to pay according to new fare list.