LAHORE, Jan 8: The City District Government has been charging fee at 22 different rates for the operation of buses from the Badami Bagh General bus stand. Fee for the operation of buses from Sikandria Colony bus stand is double the total route fare. Fee is being charged at 19 rates ranging from Rs58 to Rs280 per trip from the buses plying from different bays in inner part of the Badami Bagh general bus stand. Transporters plying airconditioned buses plying from the bays on the Ravi Link Road are being charged Rs500, Rs300 and Rs230 per trip. Fee charged for the operation of buses is double the fare of route.

Stating this here on Sunday, Pakistan Motor Transport Federation vice-president Haji Nasir Ahmad said there was no justification for prescribing different fee rates for operation of buses from the same bus stand. Fee was charged at the rate of Rs3 per day for more than 20 years after the establishment of the Badami bagh bus stand around 1960. It was later raised to Rs7 per trip for the buses operating from the bays in the inner part of bus stand. Fee for airconditioned buses shifted from the railway station was fixed equal to the fare of the route.

He said the fee charged for operation of buses was raised from Rs7 to Rs50 per trip last year and reduced to Rs40 per trip on the intervention of District Nazim Mian Amer. Former district coordination officer Khalid Sultan prescribed 19 different rates of fee for the buses operating from the inner part of the bus stand from July 1 this year and refused to revise the same despite protest of the transporters.

He appealed to the district nazim to take notice of charging different fee for buses operating from the same bus stand and prescribe a uniform rate of fee as there was no justification for linking the fee to the bus fare for the route.