HYDERABAD: With just 20 days left for Sankranti, lakhs of people from the city plan to visit their native places, particularly in Andhra Pradesh. Despite the Omicron scare, most are optimistic about making it, while some others are keeping their fingers crossed.
The TSRTC which reaped a good revenue during Dasara remains optimistic about Sankranti too. It is expected to run 4,500 additional services during the festival season from Hyderabad, mostly to AP. “We propose to run these buses from all the major stations in the city and its surroundings, similar to what we did in Dasara,” an official told Express. In October, with 4,000 special buses, Dasara RTC operations had fetched close to Rs 3.5 crore profits each day.
However, some in the corporation fear that a new variant may play spoilsport in the next three weeks.
The Railways, despite advance bookings reaching saturation levels, will only be announcing special trains just days ahead of the festival in January.
“We rise up to the occasion whenever there is a requirement. If there is demand from passengers, we shall provide additional trains, like we did for Dasara and other festivals recently,” informed an SCR official.
Meanwhile, the flights whose tickets now range between Rs 4,321 (Air Asia) and Rs 10,939 (Air India) for destinations like Vizag could rise as the festival nears. The previous year, some flights from Hyderabad charged around Rs 30,000 for places like Vizag.
However, with the Omicron variant spreading fast, there is possibility of the implementation of tougher measures by Telangana or Andhra Pradesh authorities including tighter norms at State borders. A Murali Krishna, RWAs Committee Member of Hyderabad says: “Those who can afford it are opting out of public transport post-Covid. They are travelling in their own vehicles and don’t want to take chances,” he explains.