Gandhinagar: The state govt on Sunday announced that it will launch five new Volvo buses to ferry pilgrims from Gujarat to Prayagraj for the ongoing Maha Kumbh Mela. While the service was launched from Ahmedabad earlier, buses will now depart for the Maha Kumbh from Surat, Vadodara, and Rajkot as well.
Minister for transport Harsh Sanghavi said that instead of one, two buses will now depart from Ahmedabad every day for the Maha Kumbh. In addition, the GSRTC will operate two buses every day from Surat and one each from Rajkot and Vadodara. An official statement said that devotees can book tickets for these buses on the GSRTC website.
For the new buses starting from Surat and Rajkot, accommodations will be arranged on the first and third nights at Baran, near the Madhya Pradesh border. For those starting from Ahmedabad and Vadodara, accommodations will be arranged at Shivpuri on the first and third nights, the statement said.
The package cost per person for the Prayagraj Maha Kumbh is set at Rs 7,800 from Ahmedabad, Rs 8,300 from Surat, Rs 8,200 from Vadodara, and Rs 8,800 from Rajkot. The statement said that accommodations in Prayagraj will have to be arranged by the devotees themselves.
Govt said that the first bus service launched on Jan 27 for the Maha Kumbh received an excellent response and representations were made to govt to launch the service from other cities as well for the ongoing Maha Kumbh.