BHUBANESWAR: Spiralling transport cost is turning out to be a major worry for parents in Bhubaneswar with the beginning of the new academic session in offline mode.
Private vehicles engaged in transportation of school kids have increased their charges by almost 50 % to 70 %. The van owners said the increase in fees was much less compared to fuel price hike.
“I used to pay Rs 1300 for picking and dropping my child from VSS Nagar to Loyola school in a van. After the schools reopened following the Covid-19 pandemic break of two years, the van owner is asking Rs 2,100 per month. I am not sure if we could afford this high cost for transportation,” said Samita Panda, a homeopath.
Most of the private schools in the city do not have their own buses, so parents are forced to hire private vehicles to transport kids to school.
However, the increase in fees of vans and cabs have left several parents baffled.
“The van owner, who used to charge Rs 1500 before Covid-19 hit us, has increased his fees to Rs 2,500 per month to pick my child from Saheed Nagar to ODM Public school. I requested the cab driver for just a pick-up, but he refused saying it will incur loss to him if he keeps one seat vacant, one way. My office timing does not allow me to pick and drop the child at school. I have no option but to pay the hefty amount,” said Radhika
Sharma, a state government employee.
However, the cab and van owners have their share of story and said How they are forced to increase the fees following a steep rise in petrol and diesel prices. “I think if parents calculate how much they are spending on fuel, if they pick and drop their kid on their own vehicle, they will surely find our fees much less,” said Pramod Kumar Basal, who owns a fleet of 15 school vehicles.
Biswal said how for the last two years all his vehicles were unused due to the pandemic and to restart the business, he had to spend a huge amount on repairs.
“I hired new drivers at a higher salary. We are still facing huge loss,” said Rakesh Sahu, another school van owner. Even schools having their own transport facility are planning to increase transportation fees.
“Petrol prices have increased so much and we cannot run buses bearing loss. So, we think we should increase the transportation fees in a staggered manner instead of forcing parents to pay large amounts,” said the principal of a private school in the city.
