Mobile luxury

Customised coaches are set to change the perception of bus tours "" at a price.

Think of taking up a bus tour in any city and it seems more like an ordeal than a fun trip. If there is anything that is terribly lagging in the travel segment then it has to be an organised bus service.

To cap this lacunae, Raj Travels and Tours has announced an exclusive partnership with Gray Line Worldwide, the world's largest sightseeing company.

Under the partnership, Gray Line Tours will run Volvo coaches in Delhi, Bangaluru, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Agra, Chennai, Cochin, Goa, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Mysore, Mahabalipuram and Pune customised to suit the emerging leisure segment.

What makes this service different from the regular luxury coaches is that the buses have been redesigned to accommodate 41 passengers as against the carrying capacity of 50. Besides, these buses will offer semi-reclined seats, chargers for laptops and mobiles, and individual headphones.

"With a premium product such as this, we hope to bridge the gap in the market and offer tourists an authentic local experience without compromising on quality," says Lalit Sheth, chairman and managing director, Raj Travels and Tours.

Besides Raj Travels, The Royal Time Machine, a Delhi-based new company, is set to launch a fleet of luxury coaches in the city. What makes these luxury coaches special is that these coaches have been redesigned and modified into "mobile royal palaces, complete with plush interiors and a host of modern amenities so as to give it the look and feel of being royal for real".

Says Shivani Chopra, director, The Royal Time Machine, "Our aim is to promote heritage tourism in the city and to showcase Delhi's rich cultural legacy in an exclusively royal ambience."

To begin with, The Royal Time Machine will start operations with two coaches in Delhi and go on to add Agra and Jaipur to complete the golden triangle in a couple of months. Working along with the concept, each bus will have a different historical theme, depending on the city of operation, and its interiors would be designed accordingly.

Initially, Delhi will have two buses with Mughal and Rajput themes. Interiors will be done up with paintings, zari work, chandeliers and LCD screens and to cover up for the lack of facilities outside, the buses will have rest rooms (with chemical toilets), a kitchennette, bar and parallel seating with bucket seats. To accommodate all this, a regular 50-seater bus will seat only 18.

To acquire and re-do these buses, the company plans to invest about Rs 20 crore this year. Says Chopra, "By the end of this year, we intend to have 10-15 coaches and in the next four to five years, we should be covering at least 20 tourist cities," says Chopra.

According to her, a single day tour would cost about Rs 6,000-8,000 on the Royal Time Machine.

As for Raj Travels, "Each of these Volvo 207s will cost us Rs 90 lakh. We plan to spend approximately Rs 45 crore on 34 of these buses," says Sheth.