The upcoming Ganpati festival is bringing smiles to the faces of bus transporters. At least 50 per cent of the buses have been booked by devotees travelling to Konkan. Nearly 1,100 buses will be leaving the city in the next three days.
With long-distance trains witnessing a considerable demand, the railways have been running special services. Now, bookings in private buses, too, have seen a sudden surge.
According to Mumbai Bus Malak Sanghatana, the coming weekend will have around 350-400 buses booked for Konkan. Harsh Kotak from the Sanghatana said, “We expect more buses to be booked as trains are running full. Over 1,000 additional buses will leave Mumbai for Konkan in the next few days.”
The number is almost 50 per cent of what was seen prior to the pandemic. Earlier, during Ganesh festival, there used to be around 3,500-4,000 buses for Konkan. Last year, hardly any buses plied on the route due to the Covid-19 lockdown situation.
Private bus operators run 37,000 buses across Mumbai and its metropolitan region. Of these, nearly 13,000 are tourist buses that are now running on the Konkan route. Private operators have been financially-affected due to the pandemic and had asked for a waiver in taxes.
