Christmas – New Year holiday season: KSRTC hikes ticket fare by 56%, passengers worried

Alappuzha: Taking advantage of the upcoming Christmas – New Year festive season, KSRTC has raised its ticket fares up to 56 percent, citing flexi rates, for its interstate services, reports Manorama Online. The ticket price for the Thiruvananthapuram – Bengaluru AC multi axel service has now gone from Rs 1,360 to Rs 2,291, while the tickets in AC sleeper buses have gone up to Rs 2,591 from Rs 1,700. There has been a steep hike in the ticket fares of KSRTC’s all interstate services. The KSRTC would be charging flexi rates for the services scheduled from December 18 to January 5. The corporation had introduced the flexi system, which allows for increased ticket fares during the weekends and the busy festival seasons, around two years ago.

In the initial stages, it was announced that the ticket fares would be increased only by 10 – 20 percent. However, it skyrocketed to 30 percent during the Onam season this year. Now, the ticket rates have gone up to a staggering rate of 56 percent. Passengers mostly rely on the KSRTC to steer clear of private buses that hike ticket fares as they wish, without any regulations. However, now they are in a spot as KSRTC too began raising ticket fares. Meanwhile, KSRTC authorities say that although they charge the flexi rates, it is still much cheaper than the private bus fares.

50 special services
KSRTC has scheduled 50 special services from various depots in Kerala to Bengaluru during the Christmas – New Year season. Although the corporation has already acquired the interstate permits, the depots from where the special services would be operated haven’t been finalised. Meanwhile, the authorities said that online bookings for the special services would begin soon. Most services charted for the upcoming season were fully booked within two days of opening the booking window.