Bengaluru: The State Government yesterday hiked the wages of employees of State Road Transport Corporations,  by 12.5 percent.

Addressing a press meet here yesterday, Transport Minister H.M. Revanna said that the hike will come into retrospective effect from Jan.1, 2016.

Pointing out that the wage hike will result in an additional burden of about Rs.400 crore to the four State Transport Corporations — KSRTC, NWKRTC, NEKRTC and BMTC, the Minister ruled out bus fare hike for now.

Stating that nearly 1.3 lakh employees will benefit from the wage hike, the Minister said backlog wages will be paid in instalments in the next four months.

Noting that State Transport Unions had demanded inter-Corporation transfers, payment of bonus etc., the Minister said that most of the demands have been met.

Explaining the measures taken by his Department to improve efficiency, Revanna said plans were afoot for a special recruitment drive in Puttur-Udupi region and that more number of schedules have been added for the benefit of passengers.