With Diwali round the corner, over 150 state transport buses to various destinations in Gujarat have already been booked.
The Diwali rush from Ahmedabad to Saurashtra has raised the demand for tickets, with the waiting list for trains, and buses on the rise along with increasing airfares.
As per reports, the rush is mainly towards Rajkot, Junagadh, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Morbi, Surendranagar, and Bhuj from Ahmedabad.
With Diwali vacations commencing on October 28, 30 out of 59 Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) buses to Junagadh have been fully reserved.
The corporation has earned ₹10 crore from booking in the Diwali season till now.
To cater to the huge rush of passengers, GSRTC had announced an additional 8,340 extra bus trips, aiming to serve around 3.75 lakh passengers.
GSRTC has scheduled additional bus trips from major regions, including 2,200 buses from Surat, 2,900 from South and Central Gujarat, 2,150 from Saurashtra-Kutch, and 1,090 from North Gujarat.
1.25% extra charge?
However, the Congress party has alleged that extra buses in every city will charge passengers between ₹25 and ₹45 more.
“Like private bus operators, the state transport department is also planning to loot passengers by charging more fares with these extra buses,” the Opposition party has alleged.