Pune: Interstate travellers play it safe, prefer to pay up to Rs 60,000 for one-way trips than take flights

PUNE: People stranded in the city are opting for exorbitantly-priced cabs for long-distance travel rather than taking flights which carry the risk of chance contact with co-passengers and crew.

Many wanting to go home to as far as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh have paid Rs40,000-60,000 for a one-way trip — several times more than what they would have paid for air travel.Cab operators said this was for the first time that they were experiencing such a high demand for interstate travel in private vehicles.
The demand kicked off after the travel curbs were lifted in stages from June. Requests for interstate travel passes started mounting on the Pune police after the relaxation in norms.
Girish Makhijani, owner of Hare Krishna Comfort Tours, said, “Around seven out of 10 people approaching us want to take one-way trips back home. The rest are making round trips for essential reasons like marriages or deaths in the family and to meet relatives.”
Makhijani’s cabs have recently gone from Pune to Bihar, Jaipur and Indore on one-way trips ranging from 700km to 1,800km. “I sent two people to Gopalganj in Bihar, and others to Indore, Gujarat and Rajasthan. Another cab has gone to drop off a person to Jaipur.”
Some of Makhijani’s round trips are completed in just a few days. “One traveller went home to Pali in Rajasthan and returned in the same cab. He covered 2,000km in four days, including the halt at his relatives’ place. He had missed his nephew’s wedding during the lockdown and thus felt it imperative to pay him a visit after the travel curbs were lifted,” he said.
Cab service providers say customers and drivers needed prior permission to travel and have to apply for digital passes on punepolice.in. If the police approve the request, a QR code with a letter in the Portable Document Format (PDF) is sent on the WhatsApp number of the applicant. Medical certificates of passengers and drivers are also procured by cab service providers and provided to the police authorities online.
A customer who did not wish to be quoted told TOI, “I paid around Rs35,000 for a one-way journey to Ghaziabad, almost 1,500km away from Pune. Since the cab had to return to Pune empty, I had to pay for a round trip. There were no flights to my destination. Besides, I did not want to risk travelling in a plane filled with so many people when the pandemic is raging.”
Ravi Kiran Jadhav, a private cab service provider, sent his drivers on 15 such trips to states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, among others, in June. “Many are also making round trips for pressing engagements. Travelling in a sedan could cost around about Rs10-11 per km while it is Rs 15-16 per km for an SUV. Many people are just going back home as they feel safer there,” said Jadhav.
Ashwin Trivedi, director of car rental agency Pluto Travels India Pvt Ltd, recently sent travellers to cities like Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad. “A round trip to Bengaluru costs around Rs30,000-40,000 and that for Chennai around Rs60,000. The passengers being dropped off are being charged for a round trip because vehicles have to return empty,” said Trivedi.