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MTC Bus Fares Hiked

After a gap of nearly 7 years, the Tamil Nadu government has hiked the bus fares across all its operating services on January 19, 2018. This hike is effective January 20, 2018 across city and moffusil services.

Changed Fares & Other Changes

Minimum fare of Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) buses in Chennai has been increased from Rs 3 to Rs 5, and the maximum from Rs 14 to Rs 23. Justifying the fare hike, a senior official said “Southern neighbhouring States, including Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have hiked the fares of buses in the last two years, but Tamil Nadu had not increased the fares in the last six years,”sources said. In case of non-metros, tickets would range from Rs 3 to Rs 19. For non city services, the fare has been increased by 30%. Inspite of the hike, the basic entry fare will continue to be one of the cheapest in India.

Mofussil Services

Mofussil ServicesPresent FareIncreased Fare
Normal (10 km)56
Express1724
Super Deluxe (Point to Point) – 30 km1827
Ultra Deluxe – 30 km2133
Air Conditioned – 30 km2742
Volvo – 30 km3351
Ghat / Hills  
Normal – 6 km47.2
Express – 30 km2028.8

Town / City / MTC Buses

Town / City / MTC BusesCurrent MinimumCurrent MaximumCurrent maximum
Proposed Maximum
City / Town (Other Cities) Stage 1 – Stage 20312519
MTC314523

Air Conditioned / Volvo Buses

Volvo BusesCurrent MinimumCurrent MaximumCurrent maximum
Proposed Maximum
MTC (Stage 1 – Stage 38)1510025150

MTC Bus Fare

The MTC Bus fare includes a Cess of Rs 1.

StageOrdinary ServiceExpress ServiceDeluxe ServiceNight Service
1681210
27101412
38111614
49131816
510142018
611162220
712172422
813192624
914202826
1015223028
1116233230
1216233230
1317253432
1417253432
1518263634
1618263634
1719283836
1819283836
1920294038
2020294038
2121314240
2221314240
2322324442
2422324442
2523344644
2623344644
2724354846
2824354846
29253650NA
30253650NA

According to transport department sources, the per kilometre price of ordinary mofussil buses is likely to go up from 42 paise to 60 paise; Express and deluxe bus fares to get increased from 56 paise to 73 paise.

The bus fare of Super Deluxe service is expected to increase to 75 paise as against the current 60 paise per km, while Ultra Deluxe bus fare may go upto 95 paise from 70. This means, ticket fare of an SETC bus from Chennai to Madurai will increase from nearly Rs 325 to Rs 440 per passenger.

Similarly, the ticket fares of AC Volvo buses, is likely to increase by 60 to 70 paise per km.

Fare Indexing

In order to bring in a periodic revision in case of changed input costs, the Transport department has now indexed the fares based on a complex formula that includes factors like fuel cost and inflation etc…

Accident Insurance / Fund Contribution

The transport department has now decided to create a road accident fund out of every ticket that is issued by the various corporations. The plan is to create a compulsory participatory contribution from the user. This fund shall be held in escrow and be used only for accident related compensation. Currently, accident related compensation see an outflow of 300+ crores annually.

Reasons for the Bus Fare Revision

The reasons for the bus fare revision has been due to the non revision of fares for an extended period of time inspite of the inputs costs like High Speed Diesel rising sharply. Historically the subsidy offered on the fares has not been compensated to the bus transport Corporations. This has led to mounting loses for the 8 bus corporations. Over the past 10-15 years, this amount has skyrocketed to almost 16000 crores. This move of fare revision is seen as the first among the many steps for the redemption of the health of the bus transport corporations in the state.

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