The Hop-On, Hop-Off (HOHO) bus service, launched in May this year, had a slow start, but has seen increased demand over the last month. To make tickets easily available and spur demand, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will be offering them at 160 centres across the city.
Director, (Information Technology) BMTC, Kumar Pushkar said that tickets for the HOHO service will be available at all KSRTC and BMTC centres.
He also said that hotels can make bulk bookings to hotels for the benefit of their customers.
The tickets can be purchased by hotels at a 10 per cent discount for a minimum of 10 tickets. Seven luxury air-conditioned buses (41 seat capacity) had been deployed for the HOHO service that was launched for passengers to go on a sightseeing tour of the landmarks in the city.
The rain during July had been a dampener. Owing to holidays for festivals and rainfall, the number of passengers had dwindled but is picking up now, officials said.
Tour timingsThe buses used to ply from 8.30 am up to 10.30 pm, but the service is now limited to 9 p.m. owing to lack of passengers.
One of the stops, Nagawara Lake, has been knocked off the itinerary owing to less patronage and more travel time. “Just travelling to the lake would take up to 45 minutes. By not including this stop, we save time and can increase frequency of buses,” Mr. Pushkar explained.
Promotional discountThe promotional discount had initially been offered until July 15, but has been extended until September-end, officials said.
A conductor of one of the buses, Hanumanthappa M., said there had been a greater inflow of passengers after the discount was introduced. “Most passengers come from other cities to take the tour. However, some local people take the ride out of interest or just to kill time, as the entire ride usually takes four hours,” he said.
