Fares of buses plying on the highway have gone up. For instance bus fares in Kalaymyo, Sagaing division, western Burma and Mandalay city in central Burma has gone up to Kyat 10,000 per passenger from April. The old fare was Kyat 8,000. Passengers are terribly frustrated.

A conductor or second driver said that the reason for the fare going up was related to buses breaking down on the way as the road is not good and the owners spend lots of money to replace broken parts. They also pay lots of taxes at every check gate.

“We don’t want to burden passengers. Actually we cannot get diesel from the government and purchase it at a premium from outside. The spare parts are also expensive as the buses are made abroad. Not only that we have to pay taxes to the forest check gate, police, army, municipal and the Vehicle Service Controlling Committee (VSCC). We don’t make much profit after this,” said a bus owner.

In the black market the diesel price is Kyat 3500 per gallon while the government rate is Kyat 1500 per a gallon. The Kalay-Mandalay road is about 280 mile long and 50 gallons of diesel is needed for a trip. The Kaley to Mungywa road is an ordinary road and the Mungywa to Mandalay link road is a black top metalled stretch. Buses breakdown on the way.

“It is very frustrating for the passenger. Though the capacity of a bus is only 60 passengers, not less 80 passengers are herded inside a bus. Some have no seat but they also have to pay Kyat 10,000. If a bus breaks down on the way passengers spend two or three nights in it.

Similarly, the service bus fare on the Kalay-Mungywa road has also gone up to Kyat 8000 from Kyat 6000. In fact, there are four associations on the Kalay-Mandalay bus service. The total number of buses is around 40 and at least 10 buses ply every day.