KARACHI: Transporters associations on Sunday increased fare of buses, coaches and minibuses by up to 100 per cent citing a manifold increase in prices of fuel, triggering anxiety in the city residents already suffering from inflation.

Amid heavy increases in CNG prices for the last 10 months, the transporters said, the Sindh government had not increased fares for the last eight years though during this period the Punjab government had increased fares five times. Thus it was not possible for them to run public transport under such circumstances, the transporters said.

A leader of the main transporters body of the city told Dawn that certain other associations had themselves increased fares, adding that the transporters would observe strike on July 10 in the city to pressurise the provincial government to increase fares.

According to passengers, the bus of route number 11-C has increased fare from Safoora Chowk to Saddar from Rs20 to Rs40, marking a 100pc increase.

The passengers told Dawn that when they asked the conductors to show a notification of fare hike by the provincial authorities, they did not have any such notification. Instead, the conductors showed a letter/notification purportedly issued by the Bus Owners Association of Karachi.

The conductors asked the passengers to disembark from the vehicles if they did not want to pay the increased fare. An exchange of hot words was witnessed among the bus conductors and the passengers who were seen cursing the transporters and the government officials also for not taking any action against the manifold increase in the fare.

Minibuses and coaches have also increased the fare on their own.

Mohammed Salman, an Edhi volunteer, told Dawn that the minibus of route W-11 had increased fare from Liaquatabad to Tower from Rs20 to Rs30.

The passengers also complained that the public transport owners had recently stopped plying their vehicles on full route to earn more money, putting an extra financial burden on the passengers.

Mohammed Azam, who travels from Gulshan-i-Hadeed to Saddar on a daily basis, told Dawn that Muslim coach’s fare was Rs30 for travel between the two places, but it had recently stopped plying on full route. Instead, the coach drivers stop the vehicle at Quaidabad from where another coach charges Rs20 for onward journey to Gulshan-i-Hadeed.

Strike call

Karachi Transporter Ittehad (KTI) president Irshad Bukhari told Dawn that they had not increased fare but instead they had given a strike call for July 10. However, he admitted that certain transporters’ associations had themselves increased fares as it was increasingly difficult for them to run the business amid rising fuel prices.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2019