Via to add 16 more Volvos to its fleet

Via Bus Tours, a part of Bangalore-based online travel agency, Via (formerly Flightraja.com), will be adding 16 more multi-axle luxury Volvo buses to its existing fleet of 4 in the next two quarters, each with an investment of Rs 1.1 crore, to expand its services.

“This expansion is part of our plan to invest in and run 1,000 buses, both company and operator-owned, in order to connect all the pilgrimage and leisure destinations in India in the next three years,” John Kuruvilla, chief marketing officer of Via, told mediapersons here on Thursday.

Announcing the launch of Via’s daily Tirupati Darshan service from Hyderabad to Tirupati that includes a journey in a luxury bus, snacks on board, hotel stay, breakfast and lunch, darshan and return for Rs 2,450 on weekdays and Rs 2,650 on Friday and Saturday, he said close to 50,000 people visited Tirupati and the company expected 80 per cent of these to take the road route.

Via currently runs a bus each to Tirupati from Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Chennai and Bangalore. “At present, around 40 daily bus services (20 private, 18 APSRTC and two APTDC) are available to Tirupati and the market is still untapped,” he said, adding the company would be launching its services to Shirdi from January 2012, to be followed by services to destinations like Amritsar and Ajmer.

Daily services to destinations like Sabarimala in Kerala and Kanaka Durga temple and Srisailam temple in Andhra Pradesh would be rolled out from the next season.

The closely-held company, which had earlier raised $15 million from Sequoia Capital and NEA Indo-US Ventures, was looking at raising further funds from the existing investors and others to fuel its expansion plans.