Kadamba ferries 24 to Udaipur, the longest journey in its history

PANAJI: When 24 migrant workers, tourists and students from Udaipur who were stranded in Goa hopped on to a Kadamba Transport Corporation (KTC) bus on Friday night, little did they know that they were part of history. When the bus reached the city of lakes on Sunday afternoon, it was the longest-ever journey undertaken by a Kadamba in its 40-year history.
“The trip covers approximately 1,500km in a 23-hour journey,” said KTC’s general manager, Sanjay Ghate, on Friday.However, lockdown obstacles meant the journey took closer to 40 hours, the bus reaching only at 3pm on Sunday. “The Udaipur journey is the longest journey undertaken by KTC so far. It required 1,000 litres of fuel, but the bus can only carry 400 litres at a time. Hence, it stopped on the way to refuel.”
Kadamba staff turned to faith to help with the unprecedented task. “They performed a puja of the bus prior to the journey,” Ghate said.
“They were provided with boiled eggs, bread and jam to snack on during the journey in case they fail to find a proper pitstop for food.”
This proved to be a brilliant precaution, since the drivers —Balakrishna Bhosale, 46, and Julio Fernandes, 52 — had to go without proper food and rest for the entire journey. “Due to the lockdown, roadside eateries were shut,” said Bhosale. “We survived on the food we carried, all of which has been exhausted. All we have left is some water to survive on, on our journey back home.”
The journey was far from pleasant, and was replete with long waits and diversions. The bus encountered blocked highways, diversions and long waiting periods at check posts. The longest was at the Banda check post in Maharashtra, where the bus was made to wait for four hours.
“There were many other check posts on the way that made us wait anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour,” said Fernandes. “Some villages had completely blocked access to their jurisdiction, due to which we were forced to improvise and take another route.” Thus, the bus, which left Goa at 10pm on Friday night, arrived in Udaipur 40 hours later, at 3pm on Sunday.
And even after reaching the city, there was no respite for Bhosale and Fernandes. With roads being closed and hotels kept shut, the duo had no choice but to spend the night (Saturday) inside the bus.
Some of the 24 passengers are businesspersons who had come to Goa prior to the lockdown, sources said. They then stayed back in Goa, hoping to return home after the ban on interstate travel is lifted. “The passengers were tired as well,” said Bhosale. “But at least they’ve reached home. Our objective was to ensure that they get home safely,” Joshi said. The cost of the journey for each passenger was around Rs 5,500.
Prior to the Udaipur trip, KTC’s longest journey was to Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh, to drop students of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Valpoi, and to pick up Goan students for the return trip.