PANAJI: After parts of Maharashtra were flooded due to overflowing rivers caused by heavy rain on Thursday that also disrupted road transport, operators of private interstate buses were forced to take alternative routes and even cancel trips scheduled for July 22.
“We cancelled most of our buses that were set to operate on Thursday and refunded the ticket amount to the passengers. Only the overnight vehicles were operational – one bus operated from Goa to Mumbai on Thursday by taking the Pune highway route and one from Mumbai to Goa, via Pune,” Saish Prabhu, proprietor of Manish Travels told TOI, adding that even the passengers on these buses were rescheduling their travel.
Paulo Travels did not suspend any of its operations through the day but opted to take an alternative route via Belagavi and Kolhapur to reach Mumbai. This has added a difference of an additional hour or so to the otherwise 15-hour journey.
“We have bookings for both Goa to Mumbai and vice-versa. The buses may be slightly delayed due to traffic congestion, but we cannot do much,” an employee said. Atmaram Travels has been opting for the Pune route to Mumbai owing to such recurring issues with the direct route to Mumbai. “Due to the heavy rains, we operated only two night travel buses to Mumbai. Since we are used to the route via Pune, we didn’t have to change our schedule, but the buses that travel via Kankavalli and Malvan were affected,” said the proprietor, Rubin Gopi.
Neeta Travels had suspended its buses to Mumbai due to the second wave of the pandemic. Similarly, the Kadamba Transport Corporation (KTC) is currently only operating its interstate buses to a few locations in Karnataka and has no buses going to Maharashtra destinations till August 1.
