KURTC AC buses hot favourites of foreigners

Kochi: Though ditched by desi tourists, the new low-floor AC Volvo services of the Kerala Urban Road Transport Corporation to tourist destinations in the state are in much demand among foreigners.

Initially the corporation started services to picnic spots frequented by domestic tourists such as Wonderla and even tied up with the amusement park management to offer discount in park entry fees upon travelling by the low-floor buses.

But, it was forced to stop many of the services following poor response. “Surprisingly our buses, especially those from Ernakulam, are in much demand among foreign tourists. Thanks to the large glass windows and the Volvo bus design. Also the homestay owners based in Fort Kochi encourage tourists to travel by our buses rather than renting out costly private luxury vehicles to frequent places like Munnar,” a senior KURTC official said.

For instance, while most of the low-floor buses from the Ernakulam depot (other than those deployed for inter-cluster services) run at a loss, the low-floor AC service to Munnar leaves the depot fully occupied on most days.

“The daily average collection for the Ernakulam-Munnar AC service that leaves the depot at 9 am is Rs 18, 770 for the month of January. Due to the demand, we’ve now started AC low-floor services to Thekkady and another one from Fort Kochi to Varkala Shivagiri. A lot of foreigners flock to Shivagiri from Fort Kochi these days,” the official said.