Bengaluru: Even as the Congress staged a nationwide bandh on Monday in protest against rising fuel prices, the JD(S)-Congress coalition government in the State is all set to hike bus fares from Sunday next.

The hike may be around 18 per cent for sub-urban routes and a whopping 50 per cent in respect of city transport.

However, the fare hike may be much higher for luxury bus services.

Defending the proposed fare hike, Transport Minister D.C. Thammanna said here on Monday that rising fuel prices and operational expenses has forced a fare hike.

Maintaining that the State Transport Corporations have suffered losses to the tune of Rs. 180 crore since the past four months because of rising fuel prices, Thammanna said that four Transport Corporations (KSRTC, NEKRTC, NWKRTC and BMTC) had demanded a fare hike owing to rising operational costs. Now, the government is planning a fare hike in order to offset losses and as well as to meet operational costs, Thammanna said adding that the fare hike was inevitable on account of rising fuel prices.