GSRTC kicks off free bus service from rly station

Also flags off Rajkot-Mumbai luxury coach service

Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) launched free bus service to facilitate passengers commuting between railway station and bus station along with first Rajkot-Mumbai luxury coach service at the Rajkot bus station.

MD of GSRTC G L Aloria said, "We are scheduled to cover passengers wishing to commute to and fro from the railway station to bus-station and vice verse. This service is absolutely free of cost."

Passengers commuting in 247 trains passing through Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Mehasana, Porbandar, Patan, Bhuj, Dwarka and Bhavnagar railway stations will be able to avail the city bus facilities at each of these stations, added Aloria.

The bus services in Ahmedabad shall be made available every 10 minutes starting from 4 am to 1.30 am the next day. While in Rajkot, the bus services will be operational from 5.55 am to 11 pm. We are almost covering 37 trains in Rajkot, he added. However, in rest of the places, the buses shall shuttle according to the train timing, he said.

Apart from this, GSRTC is also planning passenger lounges sponsored by corporate company. This passenger lounges shall have in-built television set and wash-rooms, said Aloria.

One such lounge will be inaugurated in Surat on April 1 while, Rajkot will have a similar lounge by first week of May, we have also been receiving sponsorship offers from cellular companies and other telecom players and we are scrutinising the same , he added.

The first Rajkot-Mumbai luxury coach service will have all the amenities which passengers generally looks for while travelling long-distance like pushback seats, DVD player, television, radio, magazine holder, bottle-holder, fans, night-lamp and seamless mobile accessibility for which GSRTC has tied-up with Hutch to provide mobile phone facility.

There would be an electronic ticketing facility and in case of any break-down, immediate aid from GSRTC or nearest bus depot will be made available, he said.

Gujarat-Maharashtra interstate luxury coach service follows various other GSRTC buses from Saurashtra which is already routing between Una-Mumbai, Amreli-Mumbai, Idar-Mumbai, Bhiloda-Mumbai, Modasa-Mumbai, Vadnagar-Mumbai, Patan-Mumbai and Surat Mumbai, on daily basis, said Aloria.

Apart from aforementioned services to Mumbai, GSRTC is also running buses to various destinations in Maharashtra like Bhavnagar-Shirdi, Mahuva-Dhulia, Talaja-Dhulia, Ahmedabad-Pune, Ahmedabad-Nashik, Ahmedabad-Shirdi, Surat-Mahad-Aurangabad, Patan-Malegaon, Ankleshwar-Aurangabad, Surat-Pune, Patan-Nashik, Gondal-Nashik etc, he added.

With GSRTC focussing purely on boosting productivity and performance by not only improvising the quality of services but equally increasing facilities, financial growth has also been registered in March 2006's figures.

"Our per day income from across 16 major depots in March 2005 till was Rs 2,52,46,344 per day and our per day income in March 2006 has been registered upto Rs 3,03,42,538 per day so there has been an over all addition of Rs 50,96,194 per day that is 20 per cent rise in our day to day business," said Aloria.

Overall business turnover registered March 2005 Rs 70,14,78,799 while in March 2006 it is Rs 77,07,69,666. There as been an addition of Rs 6,92,90,867 per month which is almost 9.88 per cent growth, he added.