Thiruvananthapuram, May 19 (IANS): Kerala Transport Minister A.K. Saseendran on Tuesday said the state owned transport buses will operate within the districts from Wednesday and there will be no travel outside the district.

Kerala has 14 districts.

It was on Monday that the decision to operate transport buses was taken by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and allowed to increase the fare by around 50 per cent.

This decision was shot down by the private bus operators who have said they will not be able to operate at this low rate.

They had put forward a 100 per cent hike in ticket rates, the additional diesel cess should be withdrawn and pointed out operating with 50 per cent seating capacity in a bus is not viable.

But Saseendran said that the private sector should understand the realities and should drop this resistance.

"We decided to increase the ticket rates as demanded by them and all what we were able to do have been done by asking them not to pay one quarters tax. This alone will cost a loss of Rs 36 crore to the government. This is a pandemic situation and every segment -- the travelling public, the state government and the operators have to bear a portion of the loss and hence, we wish they will operate the buses from tomorrow," said Saseendran.

It was on May 11 that the state owned Kerala State Road Transport Corporation started to operate special services from nine city depots in the state capital district to carry only state secretariat employees.