Travel by cabs becomes a costly affair for Bangaloreans

Travel by cabs becomes a costly affair for Bangaloreans

Shwetha S. Bangalore



The fuel price hike is making travel dearer for Bangaloreans, what with the city's cab fares going up by about Rs2 per km.
Official sources at the transport department told DNA that private cab companies had approached the department to issue a memorandum permitting them to increase cab fares. "The department has tentatively agreed to increase fares by Rs2 per km, though some companies like Meru had asked that the fares be increased by Rs5, taking the price per km from Rs15 to Rs20. But that was declined as it would burden commuters. We are segregating hike in fares into different categories," a senior official in the transport department said.
Cabs equipped with air conditioner (AC), hatch box and GPS system would be allowed to hike fares by Rs2 — from Rs15 per km to Rs17. Cabs equipped with an AC but no hatchbox or GPS system can hike fares from Rs8 to Rs9 per km, and cabs without any of these can charge Rs8 per kilometre as against the Rs7 earlier.
While fares per km have increased, the minimum fares for the different categories of cabs will remain the same.
However, some taxi owners in the city are unhappy. T Prabhakar, president of of City Taxi Association of Karnataka, said they were not content with the Rs2 hike in fares. "The Rs2 increase will not help us in any way. The department should increase the minimum fare from Rs50 to Rs100 for the city's taxis. We will send a memorandum of our proposal within a few days,"