TN transport undertakings to incur Rs 1000 cr more on diesel price hike

The Tamil Nadu government has said it would not increase the bus fares despite the recent diesel dual pricing. It also said it would bear the the additional expenditure of around Rs 1,000 crore, due to the policy.

The additional expenditure for the state transport undertakings (STUs) on account of the the new pricing mechanism was estimated to be Rs 1,000 crore, transport minister V Senthil Balaji informed the Assembly.

The Centre's dual pricing for diesel has led to a hike of Rs 11 for bulk consumers and 55 paisa for private vehicles. According to an estimate, the STUs buy around 54 million litres of diesel every month.

The Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation has a fleet strength of 28,133, including 20,136 carriages under the state transport undertakings and 7,997 private carriages, as on November 1, 2012.

In November, the state government alloted Rs 200 crore for the STUs, which are reeling under the impact of an increase in diesel price.

According to the policy note of the department, the loss for the year 2011-12 (pre-audit) was Rs 1762.73 crore. Almost 32 per cent of the operational cost was on diesel.

The minister also said the revenue from Chennai MTC (Metropolitan Transport Corporation) had increased 17 per cent to Rs 19.7 crore during the first week of February 2013 as compared with Rs 16.7 crore in the same period last year.