The government is working on a proposal to make tickets to two trans-border bus services seamlessly accessible to passengers through online booking as early as next year, The Hindu has learnt.
According to a Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) source, plans were afoot to link the Delhi-Lahore and the recently launched Delhi-Kathmandu bus services to a single online platform, which would enable passengers to book their tickets for both services well in advance via the DTC website.
Though DTC officials remained tight-lipped about the proposal, The Hindu has learnt this could be made possible to aid passengers as early as the beginning of the next financial year.
“I can neither comment on nor share information about a deadline about the proposal,” said R.S. Minhas, general manager, public relations, DTC when contacted.
The proposed initiative, according to a DTC insider, could propel both passenger traffic for the services and addition to proceeds from ticket fare if made accessible to a cross-section of passengers. Security concerns, too, could be allayed through stringent background checks well in time if advance booking was allowed, according to the source.
Online booking could also open up both services to Indian citizens interested in tourism instead of continuing to cater to relatively smaller population of passengers travelling to both Lahore and Kathmandu strictly for business or undertaking short trips due to varying compulsions.
A DTC source said the proposal was at ‘the final stage of consideration’ and ‘an announcement pertaining to online booking’ was ‘expected soon’.
Sarhad-e-Hind ,the Delhi-Lahore bus service, which is operated jointly by the DTC and the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) currently operates every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and mostly carries a full salvo of 42 passengers.
Its newly inaugurated sister service, Delhi-Kathmandu, is in operation every alternate day of the week and is slowly beginning to appeal to passengers on both sides of the Indo-Nepal border after having been inaugurated by Union Minister of Transport, Highway and Shipping Nitin Gadkari on November 25. Both buses originate and terminate at the Dr. Ambedkar Terminal near Delhi Gate.
“We currently have just a handful of buses that operate on these South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) routes, but more demand for them through online booking could add to their numbers,” a DTC official said.
