The steel city bus service will resume from Monday after two-and-half months providing relief to daily commuters.

The bus service was stopped on April 22 due to a spike in cases of Covid-19 during the second wave.

The Shikshit Berojgar Mini Bus Association which runs the bus service (popularly known as mini bus service) within the city has decided to operate buses from Monday following relaxations in lockdown rules.

"The buses will resume operation from Monday with the prevailing old fare. Buses will run on all the scheduled routes," said Sanjay Pandey, president of the association.

He went on to say that the buses will run with full capacity and that it will be mandatory for all passengers to wear masks.

The senior functionary of the association said they will convene a meeting of the bus operators later this month to discuss the issue of hike in ticket fares.

"All bus operators are passing through a difficult phase because of Covid-19 induced lockdown coupled with diesel price hike which has risen by about Rs 39 in the last three months. Therefore, it will be difficult for us to survive if we continue with the old fare, "he pointed out.

The current diesel price in Jamshedpur has crossed Rs 94 per litre while it was around Rs 65 in March.

On an average around 90 buses used to ply from the Sakchi-based bus stand for various destinations daily. But, because of the pandemic, the number of buses have been reduced to around 40 which run in places like Telco, Govindpur, Tatanagar station, Baridih, Sundernagar, Adityapur and Kandra.

Several bus operators demanded the district administration to clear their outstanding dues for the service which they had provided during the lockdown last year for ferrying migrant workers from Tatanagar railway station to their respective home districts.