By IANS,
New Delhi : The Delhi Metro’s feeder buses were back on roads Friday after four days as the driver called off their strike after the company got Delhi government’s nod to hike their fares.
Thousands of commuters faced a harrowing time since Monday when scores of Delhi Metro’s feeder buses, which help passengers reach designated Metro stations, went on a strike.
“We have pacified them. The Delhi government has agreed and the fares would be hiked shortly,” DMRC chief E. Sreedharan said.
Although the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) procured these feeder buses, the operator – Rajasthan Bombay Transport Company – manages the revenue and operations of the 120 buses. The drivers had gone on strike without any prior notice to the DMRC.
The reason given was that the operator was running into severe losses and had been under pressure from drivers demanding better wages and a bonus. But this was not feasible with Rs.5 and Rs.8 fare slabs.
However, the drivers called off their strike late Thursday and buses were plying on routes Friday after the DMRC got clearance from the state government agreed to raise the fare slabs to Rs.7 and Rs.10.
Feeder buses run on 14 routes across the city. Commuters on eight routes including Shastri Park, Welcome Colony, Janakpuri East and West, Dwarka and Kirti Nagar suffered the most.
Every day, around 950,000 people commute via Delhi Metro. The feeder buses play a major role in ferrying people to and from the Metro stations.