Agartala, August 3 (TIWN): Private bus operators of Udaipur organized protest by stalling all commercial bus movement in the Agartala-Udaipur route demanding immediate hike in fares.

The Private Bus Owners Association staged the stay -in - strike on from 10 am this morning, Association secretary Ashish Dutta said here today. The agitation reportedly continued till 2 pm today.

While the buses stalled wheels, small commercial vehicles like jeep, Max cruiser etc continued service, often at a very high fare rate.

Asked about their demands, Private Bus Owners Association secretary Ashish Dutta said that the forum had nine point charter of demands pending since long. “We have been asking for these since long. The association will go for bigger agitation if our demands aren’t fulfilled”, he said.

Dutta said that while the small and medium commercial vehicles recently raised fares, passenger buses are now contemplating to hike fares as well.

The Tripura Private Bus Owners Association staged their last major agitation in 2006 after fare was hiked in the Agartala-Guwahati and Agartala-Silchar routes.

CITU working president Pijush Nag, however, denied having any knowledge of the agitation and said that bus owners stalled their vehicles for the day. TRTC operated buses plied across all scheduled directions anyway, he said.