Patna. With the increase in the number of people coming to Bihar during Diwali and Chhath, apart from trains, buses have also started getting full. At present, the buses coming from Delhi to Patna are running full, while there are still seats available for coming from places like Siliguri, Banaras, Chhattisgarh etc. About 200 private and government buses are plying on interstate routes from Patliputra Bus Terminal. According to the information, about four buses are operated between Patna and Delhi, which are running full. Bus managers told that at present the fare to Delhi is around Rs 1500, but as the number of passengers increases, the bus fare goes up to Rs 5000.
200 vehicles come and go daily for interstate travel.
At present, about 15 buses from Patna to Siliguri, about 10 for Odisha and Chhattisgarh, about 15 for Uttar Pradesh and two for Madhya Pradesh run daily from Patliputra bus stand. Where direct trains are not available, the importance of interstate travel by buses increases. According to the Interstate Roadways Management of Pataliputra Bus Stand, there are currently no plans to change the frequency of buses for Diwali and Chhath. In future, if there is a huge increase in the number of passengers, then it can be considered.
Less passengers in buses on other routes except Delhi-Patna
Talking about offline ticketing, the crowd is less than normal compared to last year. Pappu, the operator of Rajhans bus at Patliputra bus stand, said that his buses run from Patna to Korba. Diwali is now near, even after this there is no increase in the number of passengers. The bus that left on Wednesday evening had less than 10 passengers. At the same time, there were less passengers in the buses going from Patna to Siliguri. Operators say that inflation has broken their back. There is shortage of passengers in all routes except Delhi-Patna. As far as online bus ticketing is concerned, about 50 percent booking has been done in RedBus from Delhi to Patna 10 days before the festivals. At the same time, about 30 percent bookings have been done between Diwali and Chhath.