Revision of bus fares in Tamil Nadu: Madras High Court grants four more weeks for the government to take final call

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The Madras High Court on Monday (September 21, 2026) granted four more weeks’ time for the Tamil Nadu government to take a call on revising private as well as government bus fares that were fixed at the rate of ₹0.58 per kilometre in 2018 and not revised since then.

Justice Hemant Chandangoudar adjourned the hearing on a 2025 writ petition filed by Federation of Bus Operators Association of Tamil Nadu to October 26, 2026 so that the government could come up with a final decision on the basis of consultations with all stakeholders.

The court was told that an expert committee headed by the Transport and Road Safety Commissioner had already submitted its report to a high-level committee comprising the Home Secretary, Transport Secretary, and Finance Secretary on the issue of revision of fares.

Private bus operators had brought it to the notice of the court that the fares in Tamil Nadu were fixed last in 2018 when a litre of diesel was sold for ₹67.50 and the fares were not revised since then though the price of diesel had risen to around ₹100 a litre over the years.

The court was also informed the fares were fixed at ₹1.10 per km in Kerala in 2022, ₹1 per km in Karnataka in 2020, ₹1.02 per km in Andhra Pradesh in 2022, ₹0.83 per km in Telangana in 2019. Tamil Nadu had fixed the lowest fare for the stage carriages among all southern States.

In December 2024, the Tamil Nadu government had constituted the high level committee for considering the request for fare revision and steps were taken in 2025 to hear the views of the State transport undertakings, private bus operators, bus commuters and other stakeholders.

After hearing their views and perusing the written representations received from all of them, the expert committee submitted its report to the high level committee on February 19, 2026. Since then, the government had been periodically seeking extension of time from the court for taking a final decision after studying the report in detail.

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