PANAJI: After a hiatus of six months, interstate buses of the Kadamba Transport Corporation Ltd (
KTC) resumed buses to
Maharashtra for short distance destinations. A total of nine buses left for Sawantwadi, Vengurla and Malvan on Monday night with a 30% load factor.
“So far, the response from passengers has been good. We will, however, gauge the performance of these buses for one week and accordingly decide about its continuation,” KTC general manager, Sanjay Ghate said.
It may be a while until operations to other routes, like Mumbai or Pune, see light of day.
“At the moment, we will not be starting any buses on the long distance routes. Moreover, there is no load factor on these routes. The decision will depend on the position of the pandemic,” Ghate said.
Travellers can directly visit the KTC
bus stand and board these buses to travel to Maharashtra. As of now, the KTC has not opened up its online booking facility for interstate buses. Their prior attempts to open online bookings were met with very poor response.
“With only one or two people booking tickets on one bus, it is not feasible for us to operate some buses let alone take bookings for them,” Ghate said.
Interstate bus restoration by the KTC had resumed from September 5 following the new guidelines from the central government, easing most of travel restrictions. KTC restored its
service on two Karnataka routes — Belagavi and Karwar as a result.