PUNE: School transportation expenses are stretching home budgets to the limits as service providers in the city have hiked the prices two- to threefold from the pre-pandemic rates.
Parents said that before the Covid pandemic if they paid about Rs 30,000 for a five-km distance from home to school and back for the school bus, they are now paying over Rs 70,000 to Rs one lakh annually.
Transporters cited rising fuel prices and the two-year break for the rise in costs. No earnings and heavy maintenance in the last two years, and drivers moving to other professions were among the other reasons.
Boat Club Road resident
Divya Jagdale said that her daughter studied at a school in
Wadgaonsheri
and the distance was about five km.
“I pay Rs 72,000 for the whole year. The transporters do not consider the vacation and charge for the summer months as well. I have two children and we are working parents, even so it is very difficult to manage such high charges.”
Many parents have started car pooling to drop and bring back their children from school.