In a release issued by his office, Sarnaik, who is also the chairman of the MSRTC, said crores of passengers would benefit due to the decision. However, this decision is likely to result in a loss of additional revenue for the cash-strapped public transport body.
Interestingly, for the second time in the last few months, Sarnaik, a Shiv Sena leader, had to cancel a seasonal fare hike of the MSRTC on the directive of Shinde, his party chief. Earlier in July, Shinde had asked him to cancel a 30% hike in fares of Ganapati special buses.
While the cancellation of fare hike will give some relief to passengers, the cash-strapped corporation, which is suffering heavy operational losses and struggling to pay salaries to its over 80,000 employees on time, will lose additional income of Rs 20-60 crore, an MSRTC official told news agency PTI.
“Shinde should ensure that the public transport body gets adequate compensation from the government,” the official added. MSRTC operates a fleet of around 15,000 buses which ferry some 60 lakh passengers daily.
