The Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) has held back from increasing its fleet to accommodate the anticipated surge of travellers to Ayodhya following the consecration of the Ram Temple. Maintaining the 933 buses already in operation on that route, the corporation is currently capable of transporting 1 lakh inter-district passengers daily, covering both round trips.
UPSRTC public relations officer (PRO) Ajit Singh said, “It has been decided that if there is a need for more vehicles and if the number of passengers overshoots our estimation, we will add two more buses per depot. This would amount to approximately 200 more buses on top of the 933 already in operation.”
All special arrangements by the transport corporation, such as installing sound boxes playing Ram bhajans in buses and setting up help desks at toll plazas, will be operational by January 16 and will continue for at least a month.
Of the 933 buses, 336 travel directly to Ayodhya, and 597 pass through Ayodhya. Among the direct trips, 49 buses are air-conditioned, while only 65 among those passing via Ayodhya have air conditioning. Notably, only 6 of these 933 buses are pink buses exclusively for women.
“While new buses have been added to the fleet, they have not been added solely for the purpose of tackling the Ayodhya rush. We will assign additional buses if required,” said RK Tripathi, Lucknow regional manager, UPSRTC. “Inter-state bus arrangements also have not been made and will be looked into should the need arise. If we see that lots of passengers are traveling to Ayodhya from outside UP, we will ensure that the regular inter-state buses traveling to UP make an additional stop at Ayodhya,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“While new buses have been added to the fleet, they have not been added solely for the purpose of tackling the Ayodhya rush. We will assign additional buses if required,” said RK Tripathi, Lucknow regional manager, UPSRTC. “Inter-state bus arrangements also have not been made and will be looked into should the need arise. If we see that lots of passengers are traveling to Ayodhya from outside UP, we will ensure that the regular inter-state buses traveling to UP make an additional stop at Ayodhya,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}As of now, the out-of-state buses coming in to UP are from Delhi, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab and Nepal.