Shimla, 18 October, 2024: The Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) announced a reduction in fares for commercial items transported on its buses. A spokesperson for HRTC explained in a statement, “No fare is being charged for personal and household goods weighing up to 30 kg per passenger or for two bags, baggage, or boxes of any size.”
The government indicated that the adjustments in the freight charges policy specifically apply to bags, baggage, and boxes containing automobile spare parts, electronic items, electric goods, dry fruits, new vessels, cosmetics, hosiery products, medicines, and medical appliances.
This clarification comes amid criticisms from opposition leaders, who have been vocal about the state government’s fare hikes.
Former Chief Minister Jairam Thakur criticized the government’s actions regarding the amendments, stating, “Instead of improving the health of HRTC, the government is busy increasing the fare of buses, fare of goods carried by buses, etc.”
He further lamented the previous instances where fares were charged for essentials, remarking, “Earlier too we have seen the situation when fare has been charged from people for medicines of the elderly, toys of children, even wedding albums. Now again the government is on the same path where fare is charged even for the medicine box brought for one or two elderly people of the house.”
In response, the government clarified that previously higher fares were imposed on all items, and in reality, fare rates have been decreased by 75%.
The HRTC statement elaborated that previously, a passenger fare was charged for bags, luggage, or boxes weighing up to 40 kg, even if no passenger was present. The policy has now been restructured into different slabs to lower fare charges. For instance, a passenger fare was charged for commercial items weighing 4 kg without a passenger, while half the passenger fare was levied when a passenger was present. Following the amendment, this has now been reduced to one-fourth of the passenger fare.
Furthermore, the statement made it clear that HRTC has not altered the fares for transporting personal items, household goods, apple boxes, school bags, women’s purses, laptops, fruit and vegetable boxes, flower boxes, newspapers, and other materials.
