Kerala - Kannur   

Bus operators, terminal management at loggerheads

KANNUR: Bus operators and the management of the Central Bus Terminal (CBT) here, set up on a build-operate-transfer (BOT), basis are on a collision course over the standing fee being collected from buses operating from the new terminal.

As the CBT management had said that the fee would not be reduced, the bus operators decided against entering the new bus stand till the fee is slashed.

According to District Bus Operators’ Co-ordination Committee chairman V.J. Sebastian, the operator of the BOT bus stand could collect Rs.12 per bus per day and the rate could be enhanced by 25 per cent every three years.

At present, Rs.25 was being levied from each bus in violation of the agreement between the municipality and K.K. Builders (which had built the terminal), he said.

Mr. Sebastian said at a press conference here on Wednesday that though the bus operators had approached the municipality and the police to implement the standing fee fixed in the agreement, no action was taken.

When bus operators decided to start services from the old bus stand, the police stopped them saying that only those buses designated to operate from there would be allowed to do so, Mr. Sebastian said. The police should not book those buses which refused to enter the new terminal, he added.

K.K. Builders managing partner K.K. Mohandas said the standing fee was fixed at Rs.25 after many rounds of talks with representatives of bus operators’ associations before the terminal was opened on December 23, 2008. The bus operators had been paying the amount from then, he said.

The fee had been fixed as per the company’s agreement with the municipality in 2004. As per clause 3.3(V) of the agreement, K.K. Builders had the right to fix various fees including standing fee and parking fee. The minimum fee notification in the agreement stated that the minimum standing fee should not go below Rs.12, he said.

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