Private travels cash in on festive demand

Tirupati: Come festive season, the private bus operators get a chance to fleece the passengers with exorbitant fares as the demand swells heavily. In the absence of any controlling mechanism, the operators fixing fares at 2-3 times higher than the normal fares. The AP State Road Transport Corporation too has increased fares by 50 per cent. Yet, there was a huge difference between the fares of RTC and that of private travels.

The temple city gets more traffic to and from the neighbouring cities Chennai and Bengaluru along with Hyderabad. Several software employees working in Chennai and Bengaluru usually travel between Tirupati and their workplace during weekends. They were saying that the fares were much higher during this Sankranti festival time than earlier.

From Tirupati to Hyderabad RTC fares are in between Rs 774 to 1,230 based on the type of coach whereas the private operators charge in between Rs 1,000 to 3,000 with average charge being around Rs 2,000.

Similarly, the fares to Bengaluru vary between Rs 269 to 620 in RTC services whereas the private operators were charging between Rs 500 to 3,000 and even more. Even the fares between Tirupati and Chennai also show a similar trend. These festival fares show more than 100 per cent hike than the normal tariff.

Yet, several passengers are preferring private travels as they are more flexible in pick-up and droppings besides attracting with some additional features. A passenger who came to an operator to book two tickets to Hyderabad said that the fares were much higher now. Still, he felt that particular bus was more convenient for him to reach Hyderabad. He said RTC has only a limited number of services and the timing is not convenient.

Another passenger also felt that undoubtedly, private buses are more convenient as they can find the number of buses according to their convenience. However, the government should focus on the seasonal price hike and control it as the middle class people could not bear the burden. "Rich people were going by flights. But, these private operators were charging almost on par with flight tariff which is a matter of concern", he commented.

When contacted, Tirupati RTO K Seetha Rami Reddy said that the government has instructed them to keep a vigil on the private operators who charge exorbitant amounts, in line with the increasing demand. They will soon conduct special drives to check the price hike and seize vehicles which violate the permit norms. He advised the passengers to take note of this as they may face problems when any vehicles are seized.