Blame The Toll For Rising Bus Fares In Karnataka: KSRTC Pays 50 Per Cent More Toll Compared To Five Years Ago

The toll being paid by Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has increased by 50 per cent in just five years, resulting in it being passed on to the passengers.

The Hindu quoted an official of KSRTC as saying, “Five years ago, we were paying Rs 45 crore annually and now it has gone up to over Rs 67 crore. On all the highways, toll is subject to an upward revision every year and the burden gets transferred to the passengers.”

As soon as the tolls were opened in Doddaballapura, both KSRTC and BMTC increased their fares by a couple of rupees. So, all the buses bound to Hindupur are witnessing an increase in its fares.

In places such as Marasandra, a village on the Yelahanka-Doddaballapura Road, toll is being collected despite incomplete work and service road not being provided. This leads to an unnecessary expenditure on the part of the transport corporations.

Nearly 5,150 buses contribute Rs 18.41 lakh to all the tolls in the state and outside. One such routes in Bengaluru-Mumbai, with a whopping 16 toll gates. Several requests to exempt the buses from tolls have been declined citing “commercial interest”.