Private buses continue to collect excess fare; case against 19 buses in Salem

Transport department officials checked and registered cases against 19 private buses in one week in Salem.

| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Private buses continue to collect excess ticket fares even after the district administration warned them not to do so. Regional Transport Officers (RTOs) conducted checks and registered a case against 19 private buses in Salem district for collecting excess fares.Without any prior announcement or obtaining permission from the government, the private buses in the district started to collect excess fares from the passengers from the first week of July. The Salem and Namakkal district administrations warned not to collect excess fares or action will be taken against private buses. Despite the warning, excess fares were collected from the passengers.Following complaints, Salem District Collector K. Elambahavath instructed RTOs to conduct checks in private buses. Based on the instructions, areas under the jurisdiction of Salem East, Vazhapadi and Attur RTO Thiyagarajan and motor vehicle inspectors Senthil, Kulothunkan and Pushpa conducted the checks for the past one week. As of Tuesday morning, the officials booked 19 private buses for collecting excess fares.The transport officials said that instead of collecting ₹36 fare for Salem to Attur, ₹40 was collected, for ₹21 from Salem to Vazhapadi, ₹25 was collected and for ₹12 from Salem to Karipatti, ₹16 was collected from the passengers. Officials checked the passengers’ tickets at the bus stops and seized them. The Collector will take the final call on action against the private buses, whether to suspend their permits or to slap fines, the officials added.G. Anand, a resident of Ammapet, said Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay should look into the issue and take stern action in this regard. Published - August 04, 2026 06:45 pm IST