Wedding bells may change transportation costs

UP State Road Transport Corporation will offer bus charters, special fare of Rs 16.72 per kilometre

Each year, during the wedding season, private tour operators in Uttar Pradesh charge hefty sums reaching upto Rs 20 thousand for ferrying a wedding party from one city to the other all over the state.

Their prices are mostly determined by demand during the wedding rush, rather than the distances involved, and the age of the buses made available by them.

But the state-owned UP State Road Transport Corporation is all set to change the transportation scene this wedding season by offering "Bus Charters" at cheaper, per-kilometer rates, thereby utilising its spare fleet of old buses in a profitable venture instead of keeping them idling in the various depots of the state.

According to Umesh Sinha, managing director, UPRTC, the corporation had built a large fleet of buses over the last couple of years and was planning to replace the old set with new buses that were being continually inducted into the fleet. But instead of retiring its buses from the fleet, it will be utilising them for the wedding charter services.

He said provisions for chartering corporation buses were there earlier, but the wedding charter was a new and cheaper proposition for people who wanted to travel long distances with their wedding parties. He said contrary to private bus charter services, corporation buses would be available for wedding parties at just Rs 16.72 per km, excluding taxes.

Limits for minimum distance covered per day would be fixed at 250 km in the month of April, May and June, while for rest of the year, it would be 200 km, with the buses being available on a 24-hour basis.

According to Sinha, for the wedding charters, only those buses would be made available which were more than 400,000 km at a load factor of 65 per cent or less. These buses could be chartered from the various depots in the 15 districts of the state.

The facility would also be extended to UPSRTC employees at a discounted rate of 50 per cent, though they would be able to use this facility only once in their entire service period.