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| KSTDC to expand fleet |
| Mahesh Kulkarni / Chennai/ Bangalore Oct 13, 2008, 00:51 IST |
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Will restart taxi service to airport.
State-owned Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation Ltd (KSTDC) is planning to expand its fleet of luxury buses to start package tours to new places of tourism interest within and outside the state. The corporation, which presently runs a fleet of 36 luxury buses, is buying 16 new coaches, including four Volvo buses (it already has 4 Volvo buses), for Rs 5 crore to expand its fleet size.
According to Vinay Luthra, managing director, KSTDC, the expansion of fleet will help the corporation start daily package tours to new tourism destinations like Hampi, important pilgrim centres in Coastal Karnataka and Ooty, Kodaikanal among many others outside the state. It will also increase the frequency to existing places like Tirupathi.
“We are considerably expanding our fleet size to cater to both the middle income travellers and premium travellers. Of 16 new luxury buses, 12 will be super deluxe buses to cater to the middle income group who are increasingly looking at travelling to newer places of interest and four will be Volvo buses which will cater to premium travellers,” he said.
In an effort to attract passengers alighting at the new Bangalore International Airport (BIA), the corporation is buying 100 airconditioned taxis that will run between the BIA and the city.
“After the inauguration of BIA we had suspended our taxi service as the BIAL had not permitted us to operate taxis for various reasons. With the addition of 100 new taxis (mainly Mahindra Logans and and Tata Indigos), we will restart our taxi service between the airport and the city. To begin with we have got BIAL’s license for operating 100 taxis and we have asked for 100 more,” Luthra told Business Standard.
He said the new service will commence from the middle of October. These taxis, fitted with GPS system, will be owned and run by individual drivers affiliated to KSTDC. Each taxi will run on post-paid fare basis (Rs 15 per km) and generate accurate bills after the journey.
As per the agreement between the KSTDC and BIAL, the KSTDC will have to pass on 10 per cent of the revenues earned to BIAL and retain Rs 150 per trip with itself and the balance money will go the individual drivers. To help passengers, KSTDC has set up a call centre (call centre no. 4242 5555) which will run 24x7.
KSTDC earned about Rs 2.5 crore from its taxi service at the old HAL airport.
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