There happens to be poor response of passengers towards inter district AC bus service due to hike in fare by bus operators.
The decision to hike fare by double from the old fare that prevailed prior to lockdown period in March this year was taken by operators following the directive of the State transport department to ply with half of the seating capacity besides following other protocols of Covid 19.
According to the discussion of bus operators the new fare from Dhanbad to Ranchi in AC coach now is Rs500 per passenger against Rs 250 in March.
Similarly,the fare from Jamshedpur has been doubled to Rs 580 per passenger, Rs 400 for Hazaribagh and Rs 200 for Bokaro from Dhanbad.
On Thursday morning the bus for Ranchi had to be cancelled due to non availability of adequate passengers,said Randhir Singh one of the operators. There were just two bookings for the morning bus.
We had no choice but to cancel the bus and ask passengers to wait till the next bus . Incidentally ,both too cancelled the tickets and preferred to move by two wheelers.
Ravindar Singh another operator of bus at Dhanbad Bartand bus stand said , input cost is high due to implement of Corona protocols.
" We cannot say it's corona fear or high fare that is preventing passengers to move on by AC buses", said Ravindar when was asked.
Besides, the cost of diesel and staff expense the agent commission too is high thus operation is not possible till one gets all seats booked as per corona norms.On Thursday out of eighteen buses that ply from Dhanbad to Ranchi just three moved till noon .
The fare is too high, said GP Sinha, a sales manager of a pharmaceutical firm who has to visit twice a week to Ramgarh and Ranchi to oversee company work.
He said the movement of inter city trains must be restored for easy movement of passengers . Passengers for Giridih and Jamshedpur too were not available .