Rising oil prices have raised several technical concerns for the tendering process of BRTS buses. The increase in CNG and diesel prices would mean a direct impact on Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited (AJL)'s revenue, the governing body of BRTS in the city. The tendering process has been postponed by a week. The operators have already sounded their concerns to the AJL board about a possible increase in operations cost. This cost is to be paid by the AJL to the BRTS operators per kilometre. For instance, the 900-odd city buses are run by private operators. Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service (AMTS) pays operators Rs 23 per kilometre. Likewise in case of BRTS buses, a team of bus operators have indicated a possible marginal increase of up to 20 per cent in operations cost is expected, say sources. "As of now, we are watching the oil prices closely. We feel that the oil prices increase is a temporary phenomenon. Let the tenders open first and let the oil prices stabilise at one value. There were concerns raised by bus operators, but their primise for an increase in operations cost is to be verified," says a senior official of AJL board. Besides this, AJL has agreed to increase the Annual Maintenance Costs (AMC) period from five to seven years. "The decision was taken on the basis of concerns raised by operators that a regular bus wear and tear starts after three years. It's a tendency of the operators to increase bus loads when the maintenance contract period comes to a close. We did not want the operators to enter this desperate mode."