More than 7,000 submissions from all platforms have been received by the Bus Fare Inde­pendent Review Committee (BFIRC) as of yesterday.

And the majority of the submissions made by the members of the public sought to decrease bus fares, improve bus services and address the unavail­ability of the disposable cards, says the BFIRC, chairperson, Joel Abraham.

“There had been a massive contribu­tion from the members of the public and this showed that people were interested in the betterment and the welfare of the bus service industry,” Mr Abraham said.

While Mr Abraham said the face to face consultations on the bus fare review ended on Wednesday in Nausori with a good turn out after a long wait, the other platforms remain open.

“All submissions close on November 15 except for the texting platform which will end on November 30 because more people are using this platform compared to other platforms to make submis­sions,” Mr Abraham said.

He has urged people to continue to make submissions through the text number ‘336’ as this was the only time before the Committee reviewed the sub­missions.

In addition Mr Abraham said: “Some of the feedback also included suggestions of getting hybrid or electric buses which are climate friendly.

There were very positive responses of e-Ticketing stating it was a great ini­tiative and people were not complaining about e-ticketing while boarding the bus­es,” Mr Abraham said.

Other platforms used for submissions are: by Post, SMS, Email, Facebook and Face to Face consultations.

Edited by Mohammed Zulfikar

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