Telangana call turns travel dearer

State tourism corporation says biz impact marginal as Nov-Jan is the peak season; Gujarat, Maharashtra tourism to benefit this year

Travelling by private bus has now become a costly affair in Andhra Pradesh. The ongoing Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) strike and the skyrocketing private travel fares have started to hit the people's annual festival and marriage travel plans.

APSRTC employees hailing from the Seemandhra region have been on strike since the last two weeks, protesting against state’s division.

Pushed to the back seat by its own staff, APSRTC has suspended both online and at-the-counter ticket bookings besides refunding amounts to its passengers for the intra-state and outbound destinations citing service cancellations.

“Any solution is far-off and the situation could turn much worse as the officials are left with no makeshift alternatives," said an official from APSRTC bus depot at Moosapet in Hyderabad. Earlier, APSRTC managing director AK Khan said the corporation would be losing Rs 13 crore a day due to the stir.

The results of service shortage are here to see. The private service fares zoomed more than 30-100 per cent from Hyderabad to destinations like Visakhapatnam, Amalapuram, Rajahmundry, Vijayawada, Nellore and Tirupati, all falling in Seemandhra. The August-December period is normally considered to be the peak travel season for festivals and marriage functions.

Available for Rs 450 a fortnight ago, the economy semi-sleeper bus ticket from here to Visakhapatnam now costs anywhere between Rs 700 and Rs 800. Unsurprisingly, a Volvo air-conditioned service has been moving around Rs 1,300-Rs 1,550 for the last five days. Same is the case with the service to the pilgrimage city of Tirupati, with economy and luxury fares being between Rs 600 and Rs 1,500.

Much to the agony of passengers, insiders say the fares could move higher as they expect more demand starting from next month. Despite this, passengers say, they still prefer to travel, the reason being they can't miss out the wedding functions and family festival grouping.

Speaking to Business Standard, a city-based IT professional said: "I'm worried if I could move with my family from here to attend a relative's wedding next month." After failing to book tickets from the railways, he is now considering other options including the low-cost air travel service.

Cashing in on  the situation, even small private cargo carriers have started raising charges from the neighbouring districts to the bandh-hit Seemandhra areas.

“I had never seen fares of this magnitude in my entire lifetime,” said a retired government employee. A loyal APSRTC traveller, he has now decided to postpone his Tirupati temple visit along with his family. After the state division news, the otherwise busy Tirupati has been witnessing low pilgrim turnout, stated Subramanya Sastry, a senior temple priest.

Tourism corporation sees little impact
Meanwhile, state-run tour services provider APTDC said it would see only a marginal business impact as November-January period is its peak demand season.

When contacted, Anji Reddy, central reservation manager, APTDC, said: “We are witnessing some cancellations for one-way trips to Srisailam-Ahobhilam- Mahanandi, Nagarjunasagar and Bhadrachalam-Papikondalu circuit from the Seemandhra travellers. However, these are too small to affect us.”

The corporation has its own fleet of buses covering entire locations in the state as well as the neighbouring states. In the aftermath of the statehood call, it hasn’t cancelled any of its tour packages.

According to Reddy, the July-August Shirdi-Ellora tour package has not taken any hit due to the ongoing situation in the state. Shirdi travel trips are a major revenue source for the state corporation.