NE BUSINESS BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, NOV 13
Gujarat seems determined to make the Festival of Lights a family affair this year. This is evident from the high volume of intercity bus ticket bookings registered so far on redBus, India’s largest online bus ticketing platform, says a redBus release.
The booking for Diwali on redBus had already started 15 days in advance before the festival on 14th November.
About 250 Private Bus Operators along with Gujarat State Regional Transport Corporation (GSRTC) are gearing up to cater to the year’s peak travel days by running around 7000+ daily services, through which they are expected to transport 4 lakh passengers, across a cumulative distance of 2.9 crore kilometres during the Diwali week.
Data from redBus so far indicates that travel between Ahmedabad and Indore is the most sought after bus route in Gujarat for Diwali.
Accordingly, the top 10 routes in Gujarat during Diwali are as follows:
| Top Routes 2020 (to and fro) | Top Routes (2019) |
| Ahmedabad-Indore
Ahmedabad-Jaipur Ahmedabad-Rajkot Ahmedabad-Junagadh Ahmedabad-Udaipur Surat-Ahmedabad Ahmedabad-Jamnagar Ahmedabad-Kota Ahmedabad-Pune Ahmedabad-Jodhpur
|
Ahmedabad-Rajkot
Ahmedabad-Udaipur Ahmedabad-Jaipur Ahmedabad-Junagadh Ahmedabad-Jamnagar Surat-Ahmedabad Ahmedabad-Indore Ahmedabad-Jodhpur Ahmedabad-Bhuj Ahmedabad-Bhavnagar
|
About 66% of the current bookings are for travel within states and the remaining 34% for interstate travel. 64% of the current bookings have been made on Air-Conditioned buses.
The top 5 cities where redBus is witnessing high demand for travel in Gujarat are Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot and Vapi.
For Diwali this year, the shortest intercity bus route booked in Gujarat is between Sanand and Ahmedabad, covering a distance of 22 kilometres in 45 minutes and the longest is between Ahmedabad and Muzaffarpur, between Gujarat and Bihar, covering a distance of 1780 kilometres in 34 hours.
No compromise on safety
Safety continues to be an important factor under consideration during the festive rush, with redBus strictly adhering to laid guidelines, applicable to both bus operators and travellers, under its Safety+ program. Accordingly, all passengers and crew are required to wear masks while travelling, with facilities for hand sanitization offered within the vehicle. Temperature checks will be undertaken at boarding and no linen will be provided by operators. Buses will be sanitized after each trip under established guidelines.
While Safety+ ensures that the partner bus operators enforce a slew of strict safety measures to keep the passengers safe, redBus has also listed out a set of passenger guidelines encouraging them to travel responsibly for a safe journey.
The intercity bus travel demand is expected to last beyond the festive season as bus travel steadily returns to normalcy.
