GSRTC adds 800 buses to Vadodara fleet for Diwali

VADODARA: Anticipating a heavy rush of passengers during Diwali holidays, the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) has added nearly 800 buses to its existing fleet in Vadodara. The additional buses will operate round-trips to various locations, mainly in Saurashtra and Ahmedabad regions.
The extra trips will be operational for five days beginning Sunday and the authorities may extend the service depending upon the traffic during the holidays."Usually, a larger number of people leave the city during Diwali. The maximum traffic is towards Saurashtra and Ahmedabad. As many as 550 extra buses will head to Amreli, Rajkot, Junagadh and Bhavnagar. Another fleet of 250 buses will take passengers from Vadodara via Nadiad to Ahmedabad from where they can continue their journey further north," said N B Sisodia, Vadodara district controller of GSRTC.
More trips to Dahod and Godhra in Panchmahal district will be added to the holiday-special services. "Every year, we add trips to the existing service in order to manage the increased rush of passengers. We are sure that 800 extra trips will be adequate. However, the number of trips can be extended if such requirement is felt," said another official of GSRTC's traffic department, K S Gandhi.
According to Sisodia, managing traffic will be easier this year. "The new central bus depot is proving to be of much help. The waiting room, food court and other conveniences have made waiting and travelling easier for passengers. The extra ticket windows and parking spaces for the buses will help us manage the extra buses," he added.
Moving away from the practice of increasing fare prices during Diwali, this year, GSRTC has kept the fares same as during regular days. "We used to increase prices every year till 2013 as many buses made an empty trip back to the city. But the prices have been kept unchanged this year after we received requests from many associations across the state. The prices were reduced on August 15 and will remain same for Diwali," Gandhi added.