KARACHI: The Sindh government has allowed the National Radio & Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC), the federal entity that operates and maintains Peoples Bus Service (PBS) in the province, to increase the fares of a bus route in the city by 100 per cent, it emerged on Sunday.

Confiding to Dawn, informed sources said the decision to that effect had been taken in a meeting of the fare revision committee on intercity routes, having representation from the NRTC, Sindh Mass Transit Authority and engineers of the third party.

They said the maximum fare of the newly extended PBS route from Gulshan-i-Hadeed to Tower was increased to Rs100 from Rs50 as the distance was now 58km.

The route originates from Allah Wali Chowrangi in Gulshan-i-Hadeed and terminates at Tower via Steel Town, Port Qasim Chowrangi, Manzil Petrol Pump, Quaidabad, the neighbourhood of Malir, Malir Halt, Colony Gate, Natha Khan Bridge, Drigh Road Station, PAF Base Faisal, Lal Kothi, Karsaz, Nursery, FTC, Metropole, Karachi Press Club, Arts Council Karachi, Pakistan, and I.I. Chundrigar Road and City Station.

They said the operator had started charging Rs100 three days ago after the route was extended because earlier it was from Gulshan-i-Hadeed to Malir Cantt.

The sources said the operator enhanced the fare of the PBS as it was not commercially viable to run the buses on the route extended up to 58 km due to upsurge in prices.

An official of the Sindh Mass Transit Authority (SMTA), who did not wish to be named, said that complaints regarding charging Rs100 for even lesser distance on the routes also surfaced and the authority immediately approached the operator. “Now, they are not charging Rs50 as minimum fare for the lesser distance,” he added.

Meanwhile, the sources said the NRTC had decided to increase the fares of all routes of the PBS from the next month in view of higher fuel prices.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2022