India, June 12 -- In a little over a month after it hiked bus fares by 100 percent, the BEST Undertaking is set to bring them down. The authorities are working on reducing the fares by Rs.2-3 as well as rationalising the route kilometres. The step has been taken after the daily passenger count dropped by around 450,000 subsequent to the fake hike. Moreover the BEST's owned fleet, for the first time, has dropped below 500 buses.

On June 11, the BEST authorities held a high-level meeting where they discussed the possible solutions to improve the situation, rationalise fares and introduce a new fare slab. According to senior officials, passengers have migrated to shared autorickshaws. Confirming this, BEST general manager SVR Srinivas said ...