Thursday, September 14, 2017

Senior citizens to get 50% concession in city bus fare | Nagpur News - Times of India

Senior citizens to get 50% concession in city bus fare

Proshun Chakraborty | TNN | Updated: Sep 14, 2017, 12:56 IST

NAGPUR: Come October 2, senior c
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itizens (above the age of 60 years) will get 50% concession in bus fares in city. This move will cost NMC Rs50 lakh per annum. The civic body has already given concession to freedom fighters.
The decision was taken in transport committee's meeting held on Wednesday headed by Jitendra Kukde. He told TOI that the transport department has already made a provision of Rs50 lakh each for concessions to school students and senior citizens in its budget.
"Currently, senior citizens are charged full fare in city buses whereas they are getting concession in state-run buses," Kukde said and hence the NMC has decided to give 50% concession to senior citizens in city buses.
After getting poor response from commuters due to very high fares, the meeting also decided to bring down tariff of green buses. Kukde said the NMC is planning to cut the fare by almost 40%. "We will try to keep the difference of both red and green buses fares by Rs2 to Rs3," the transport Kukde said.
Citing an example, he said the minimum fare of a red bus is Rs10, whereas the fare of same distance for Green bus is Rs16. So passengers prefer to travel in red buses, he said.
Presently, NMC's transport department is plying only five green buses though five more ethanol-run buses have joined the fleet. These five buses are plying on six different routes from Sitabuldi to Pipla Phata, J N Hospital (Kanhan), Hingna Rural hospital, Mihan, Khapri Phata, Defence and Butibori.
The department has also decided to ply special buses for Koradi temple during 10 days of Navratri festival. The NMC will ply 38 buses which will make 278 trips from five different areas like Sitabuldi, Kamptee, Hudkeshwar, Gorewada and Ayachit Mandir to Koradi temple.
Similarly, the civic body will provide city bus service for Deekshabhoomi during Dhammachakra Pravartan Din from 12 different destinations to Deekshabhoomi. It will operate 95 buses which will make 730 trips from September 29 and October 1.
Drawing a lesson from recent strike by conductors and drivers, the committee has given its nod to hire daily wagers from health department to work for city bus service during afternoon hours, said Kukde. The committee also approved formation of a flying squad to keep watch on ticket checkers of DIMTS. "We also approved a proposal to move scrapped buses parked in Hingna depot to pave way for rolling buses," Kukde said.
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