The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : KSRTC launches online hotel booking on its portal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 20, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

KSRTC launches online hotel booking on its portal

Staff Reporter

Suvarna Karnataka tickets offer new travel options

You can book hotel rooms after virtual
viewing online
Suvarna Karnataka tickets can be used to travel three to four days at a stretch within the State

BANGALORE: The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) on Wednesday launched online hotel booking facility through its advance reservation portal — any where any time advance reservation (AWATAR).

Passengers booking advance tickets online can also book hotel rooms at their destination. On the occasion, KSRTC Vice-Chairman Jaggesh also launched its all-new design website: www.ksrtc.in.

The new features include online real-time reservation of hotel rooms after virtual viewing of rooms provided before booking. There is also provision for group-booking and cancellation of booking.

Mr. Jaggesh said: “We are proud to launch the country’s first transport online passenger reservation portal combining a hotel reservation, which would be instrumental in revolutionising the road transport sector. Projects like these help strengthen our commitment on providing passengers with maximum value for their money.”

Bangalore-based Radiant Info Systems has designed and will maintain AWATAR, a first of its kind road transport online booking project in the country. Radiant has now implemented the online hotel booking feature on www.ksrtc.in.

During the last two years of AWATAR’s operation, over 75 lakh people visited the site, and tickets worth Rs. 380 crore were booked. Thus, AWATAR has become a trendsetter in the country with many other State transport undertakings following KSRTC’s footsteps. While the site has over five lakh registered ebooking users, nearly 30,000 people visit the site a day.

The site has become one of the top 1,000 e-commerce sites in India in a short span of its existence enabling tremendous revenue earning potential through online advertisements. M/s AdDate.com has entered into agreement with KSRTC for the advertisement rights on the portal.

Radiant Director Narayanacharyulu said, “The idea behind developing such a software solution for KSRTC was both challenging and a pleasurable experience. Radiant has successfully implemented similar online booking projects for APSRTC in Andhra Pradesh and STUs in Tamil Nadu. We have a contract for implementing one single portal “busindia.com” for online reservations for all the State transport undertakings in India through a central-funded programme.”

Suvarna Karnataka tickets

On the occasion, KSRTC launched Suvarna Karnataka Tickets to help passengers travelling for shorter durations. By using the ticket, a passenger can travel for three or four days from one place to another within the State. Passengers who purchase this ticket can also make advance reservation of seats by paying reservation fee at reservation counters.

A three-day ticket (Friday to Sunday) and a four-day ticket (Monday to Thursday) for ordinary/express service will cost Rs. 500; similar tickets for Sheetalm, including ordinary/express will cost Rs. 600 and for Rajahamsa, including ordinary/ express will cost Rs. 700.

Principal Secretary (Home and Transport) Upendra Tripathy, KSRTC Managing Director Gaurav Gupta and Director (Security and Vigilance) M.A. Saleem were present.

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Karnataka