Private bus owners in north Bengal have decided to gradually take their buses off roads if the Mamata Banerjee government does not revise fares to keep pace with rising diesel prices.

“The price of diesel is rising but the state government is reluctant to hike bus fares. Such a situation has already forced many of our members to stop running buses. If bus fares are not revised immediately, it would be tough for us to run the buses. In such circumstances, we would be left with no other alternative but to withdraw our buses in due course,” said Pranab Mani, the general secretary of North Bengal Passenger Transport Owners’ Coordination Committee, an apex body of 33 associations of private bus owners in the region.

“We fail to understand why the state government doesn’t want to revise bus fares. It was in 2018 when the fares were last revised. The price of a litre of petrol was Rs 68 then,” he added. On Monday, a litre of diesel in Siliguri cost Rs 99.53.

In north Bengal, around 5,500 private buses used to run on different routes but due to the hike in diesel prices, barely 1,800 vehicles are currently running.

Withdrawal of many buses in the area has left South Dinajpur and district headquarters Balurghat the worst hit.

“Even today, buses are the most important public transport in the district. Over the past few weeks, over 250 private buses which used to ply in different routes of the district have been withdrawn,” said a source.

Mani said they are sending a letter to the chief minister to seek her immediate intervention. They would then wait for a week. If no decision is taken by the state, the owners would launch protests and demonstrations across all the districts of north Bengal.

The bus owners said they don’t need to call a strike as many have already started withdrawing their buses.

“In past one week, around 1,200 buses have gone off the roads. We can’t afford to run the buses by bearing consistent losses,” said a bus owner based in Siliguri.