Hyderabad: The elections on May 13 for the Lok Sabha and Assembly in Andhra Pradesh, the same day as in Telangana, have handed a great opportunity to private travel agencies to make money, as thousands of people of AP origin leave Hyderabad to cast their vote at their native places.
The travel agencies increased the fare to Rs 2,000 from May 11, Second Saturday, when the long weekend ahead of the elections begins. On an online portal, a number of private travel agencies had fixed their fare from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2000.
Telangana politicians raised eyebrows over the prospects of AP-origin voters leaving for Andhra Pradesh, as it could bring down the voter participation in the state.
Approximately 12 lakh Andhra and Rayalaseema residents in Hyderabad are likely to go to Andhra Pradesh to participate in AP elections in the neighbouring state.
Employees of IT companies belonging to Andhra Pradesh have three holidays — May 11 (Saturday), May 12 (Sunday) and May 13 (polling day). Those who do not have a holiday on Saturday intend to travel on Saturday.
A political party, meanwhile, hired a private travel agency to sponsor free travel to AP voters from Hyderabad to different places of Andhra Pradesh.
A travel agency operator, K Ramesh, said that they received a mammoth response from passengers by making advance booking online from May 9 to May 12. To provide more services to passengers, empty buses return to Hyderabad from Vijayawada during the day and operate more services these four days. A ticket for an AC sleeper was going at Rs 2,200 per passenger from May 9 and it would go up further based on demand.
Similarly, the majority of private travel agencies hiked the regular fare to Rs 2,000 per each seat/sleeper. However, the TSRTC did not increase the fare and is planning to operate more bus services based on the demand.
