GSRTC Updates,Developments,Photos & Discussions

[s.yogendra]

Now, landlines can connect you to GSRTC’s luxury Volvo buses

After the success of its Volvo bus service in Ahmedabad, the Gujarat State Road Transport Service (GSRTC) is all set to introduce another feature to its facilities.

Passengers can now book their tickets from fixed line phones. Earlier, bookings and time tables were available on SMS, but now for better convenience, GSRTC has started the landline calls, even for AC buses.

Ahmedabad-based commuters can call 079-26929165 for booking tickets or to receive bus time tables. Starting point for the buses will be in the Satellite area.

For booking from Rajkot, passengers can dial 0281-2475665 and these buses will start from Limda Chowk in Rajkot. Similarly for bookings from Jamnagar, pick-up point is Indira Marg and tickets can be booked on 0288-2551925.

"The booking centre and the pick up point are at the same location for passengers' convenience. The service (bookings on landline) was started keeping in mind passenger rush during the month of Shravan," said PD Patel, public relations officer, GSRTC.

Apart from landline services, SMS bookings have also been in operation since the past few months. To receive bus availability details between two cities, type VOLVO followed by the name of the two cities and send it to 9998805656.

Patel further said that various facilities including reading material and drinking water will be provided to travellers. "We will provide one English newspaper, DNA, Gujarati newspaper Divya Bhaskar and one Gujarati magazine. Also, mineral water bottles will be provided to passengers and LCD television movies will be shown to them," added Patel.

More than 1,500 passengers travel daily on GSRTC Volvo buses to cities like Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot and Jamnagar. On March 8 this year, GSRTC had launched air-conditioned Volvo buses for long distance travel in the state.

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report...-buses_1571052

[s.yogendra]

Now get entertained at ST bus stations, and also in the buses

Gujarat State Transport Corporation(GSRTC) will install public entertainment system at important bus stations and in long distance buses. This new service will be opened by GSRTC Chairman Shri Babubhai Ghodasara on 15th August. The system will have L.C.D TV sets.



According to GSRTC release, Sambhav media limited will install, operate and maintain the TV sets on its own expenses in 50 bus stations and 2000 long-distance buses. Sambhav media will pay Rs. 525 for each bus screen and Rs 2,000 for each screen on the station per month to GSRTC.

In initial phase, 50 buses and 5 bus stations are to be covered in the month of August. According to GSRTC Secretary Shri P.D.Patel, all 2,000 buses and 50 bus stations will be covered in next six months.

Patel said Sambhav media will show advertisement for 25% of time and 75% will be allotted to public entertainment through the screens. 30 minutes per day will be reserved for important announcements by GSRTC and in-house advertisements per day within the period prescribed for advertisements.

According to Patel, the new project will provide Rs. 1.38 crore revenue to GSRTC. Moreover the passangers will get entertainement while waiting for the bus and also within the bus. Patel added that the LCD screens will also allow government to relay the important announcements of public good in events like disaster and epidemic.

http://deshgujarat.com/2011/08/12/no...-in-the-buses/

[s.yogendra]

3 new modern bus stations to come up in city

RAJKOT: In order to meet ever increasing rush of passengers in the city, Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) has decided to set up three new modernized bus stations in Rajkot.

"With Rajkot becoming a virtual capital of Saurashtra, rush of passengers has increased manifold. There are about more than 1,000 buses that visit the city on daily basis. To manage the rush of passengers and increasing number of buses, we have decided to build three new bus stations in the city. These stations will be modernized ones with facilities like ATM, medical store, hospital, restaurant, shopping mall etc. The tenders for this project will soon be floated," a senior GSRTC official said.

Sources in the GSRTC estimate the project to be of Rs 10 crore worth. Rajkot bus station is currently divided in two parts. The modernization project will be undertaken in phase-wise manner. After completing the two stations, the third station will be set up near GSRTC zonal office near Gondal Road, from where buses for Bhavnagar, Amreli, Mahuva, Rajula, Junagadh, Porbandar, Somnath, Veraval, Upleta, Dhoraji, Jetpur and Gondal ply.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiati...rt-corporation

[s.yogendra]

AC bus for G'nagar disappoints

AHMEDABAD: As passengers boarded the new air-conditioned bus launched for Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad on Monday, they were surprised. Seats were torn and interiors of the bus were in bad shape. This, on its maiden trip to Gandhinagar.

The Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation had made a lot of fuss while announcing the launch of this air conditioned bus service between the state capital and Ahmedabad. However, on Monday, when the passengers boarded the bus, the shock was such that some of them alighted immediately.

Sachin Patel, a passenger, said, "As soon as I boarded the bus, I was repulsed by the damaged seats, stinking curtains. I then decided that I would rather prefer to travel in a non AC bus." Patel came down from the bus. There were many others who felt like Patel, since there were hardly any passengers in the bus.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiati...tc-bus-service

[s.yogendra]

Students go on rampage at Gandhinagar ST depot

Angry that a bus did not come in time, a group of around 100 students went on the rampage at Gandhinagar bus depot of Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) on Tuesday morning. They manhandled the deputy manager of the depot, punctured parked buses and smashed windowpanes.

The students who created the ruckus belong to a polytechnic college near Mahudi and commute dailyto and fro. They said that only one bus - Vijapur-Mahudi via Gandhinagar- plies on that route. This bus did not come on Tuesday. Consequently, they could not appear for their internal exam, they claimed.

The students said that the Vijapur-Mahudi bus usually arrives at Gandhinagar depot at 6:30 daily, but somehow it did not come on Tuesday. They added that there is no other bus available to reach their college on time.

After the bus did not come on time, students rushed to the office of the depot manager at around 9:00 am and started arguing with him. A heated exchange ensued and students pulled the assistant depot manager out of his office and manhandled him.

The rampaging students then punctured some buses parked in the depot. Later, they targeted the parcel office on the depot premises and smashed its windowpanes and destroyed furniture inside. Stunned by the behaviour all the employees of GSRTC at the depot ran away from their offices.

Students said their anger was not only because the bus did not come on Tuesday.

"This has been a longstanding problem. Many applications have been submitted to the depot manger to increase the frequency of the bus on that route but nothing has been done yet," they claimed.

Following the incident, GSRTC promised to look into the matter. "We will conduct a survey of all the colleges on all the routes near Gandhinagar and then increase the frequency if needed," said PD Patel, public relations officers (PRO) of GSRTC.

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report...-depot_1587186

[s.yogendra]

AGS Implements Digital Signage For GSRTC

In a first of its kind, the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC), has deployed digital signage screens in 50 buses and five depots. Plans are afoot to deploy the screens in 1950 more buses and another 45 depots by January 2012.

Ahmedabad-based AGS Transact Technologies, the implementation and technical partner in the project, has deployed the screens and is also providing the backend infrastructure comprising data center at the GSRTC head quarter at Ahmedabad. The depots would have servers, power supply, Wi-Fi routers, access points, 32" LED TVs. The 2000 buses will have LG/Viewsonic LED TV screens with metal casing, inbuilt media player with 2GB RAM, 250GB hard disk drive apart from other hardware and software.


The HQ will distribute content to different bus depots. These bus depots will further disseminate the content in the buses.


The project is worth Rs six crore while the five year AMC contract, handled by AGS, is worth another Rs five crore, said Karunesh Chakraborty, Senior Manager, AGS India.


He added that Sambhaav Media—an Ahmedabad-based print and Out Of Home (OOH) company had bagged the tender. “They required a technology partner and we were chosen from a list of shortlisted bidders. We were the only one to pass the initial proof of concept test as we had technology and support systems in place.”
AddThis

http://www.crn.in/Hardware-021Sep011...For-GSRTC.aspx

[s.yogendra]

Fare hike in Gujarat to pinch luxury bus passengers

The Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) has hiked bus fares by Rs2 to Rs9 per km. This comes close on the heels of the Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation (RSRTC) hiking bus fares by 0.4 paisa to 14 paisa per km from September 20-21. The hikes are expected to hurt passengers who take express and luxury/deluxe buses to Rajasthan from Gujarat and vice-versa.

Not only commuters travelling between Gujarat and Rajasthan, but also travellers from Rajasthan going to Maharashtra via Gujarat will feel the heat of the twin hikes. However, the premium Volvo-bus services including Jaipur-Surat, Jaipur-Ahmedabad, Udaipur-Ahmedabad and Udaipur-Surat will not be hit by the hike announced by GSRTC as fares of Volvo bus services ranging from 24 to 600 km has not been touched.

The RSRTC too has kept Volvo buses connecting Rajasthan and Gujarat out of the ambit of fare hike. The hike announced by the GSRTC has become effective from September 29 and will hurt the passengers of express and luxury/deluxe bus.
In case of express buses, the fares have been hiked by Rs2 to Rs6 (spanning from 6 to 600 km), while fares of luxury buses have been raised by Rs3 to Rs9 (six km to 600 km).

As per the agreement between transport department of both the states, inter-state buses running between Gujarat and Rajasthan charge fares as per the latter’s rate when running in Rajasthan. But the moment these buses enter Gujarat they will have to charge rates decided by the GSRTC.

As per RSRTC officials, the fare hike announced by the GSRTC will particularly hit business class travellers as well as labourers who commute every day by RSRTC Express and deluxe buses from Bhilwara, Udaipur, Abu Road, Jalore, Sirohi, Dungarpur and Banswara.

The RSRTC inter-state buses connect Rajasthan with 11 states. Over 300 RSRTC buses operate on 153 routes of Gujarat covering 40,140 km and catering to more than 15,000 passengers daily.

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report...engers_1594871

[s.yogendra]

Eicher delivers low-floor city buses to GSRTC
BS Reporter / Mumbai/ Ahmedabad October 07, 2011, 0:07 IST

Eicher Trucks and Buses, an arm of VE Commercial Vehicles Limited (VECV) introduced its recent bus offering on Indian roads on Thursday as it handed over the first lot of 10 rear engine semi low floor (RESLF) city buses to Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC).

G Sekar, senior vice president (sales & marketing), Eicher Trucks & Buses handed over the keys of the buses to Vajubhai Vala, minister for finance & transport, government of Gujarat at the GSRTC depot in Gandhinagar."We are thankful to the Gujarat government, especially the management of GSRTC for reposing confidence in us and giving us the opportunity to partner in the growth of the state’s infrastructure," said Sekar.


Source


Source

http://www.business-standard.com/ind...-gsrtc/451697/

[AjayGJ21]

It may be intercity bus services.
Is there any fleet between Surat-navsari? Here there is a great need of such intercity bus service like that.

[NitinPatel]

Rs 2.5L daily hike in GSRTC income


The Ahmedabad division of Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) has recorded an increase of nearly Rs 2.5 lakh in its income during the festival days. Officials in GSRTC said the routine income of the GSRTC from Ahmedabad was about Rs 30 lakh per day, but during the festival season the income increased by Rs 2.5 lakh per day. Officials said that about 850 new buses were pressed into service from Ahmedabad city for Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Amreli and Surat.

Officials said that the GSRTC put on road 10 additional Volvo buses and 20 air-conditioned buses to meet the Diwali rush.

The GSRTC buses made 1,085 additional trips from Ahmedabad to Rajkot, Jamnagar, Amreli, Dahod, Godhra, Surat, Ambaji and Bhuj. Buses were also introduced to cater to people going to Mumbai during the festival season. According to GSRTC, the 1,085 trips covered an additional two lakh kilometers.

[s.yogendra]

Renting out buses for events more profitable: GSRTC

The Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) has admitted that allotment of buses for events like Sadbhavana Mission fasts to ferry passengers from each and every corner of the state was a profitable business than running them on a regular route.

According to GSRTC officials, over 200 buses in a division are withdrawn to cater to the Sadbhavana fast organising agency.

In Porbandar event, about 150 buses were booked. “It was a Sunday and students usually do not commute from villages,” said R B Shah, chief traffic commercial manager, GSRTC. “Allotting the buses for such events was more profitable than running them on a regular route,”he said.

One bus would fetch around Rs 12,000 on an average per day or more, depending on the distance to be covered, Shah added.

Meanwhile, state Congress general secretary Girish Parmer criticised the withdrawal of buses from regular routes and alleged that in Porbandar district, where a Sadbhavana fast was held on Sunday, the GSRTC withdrew nearly 350 buses collectively from four districts - Rajkot, Amreli, Junagadh and Jamnagar.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/re...-gsrtc/878535/

[s.yogendra]

GSRTC bus

image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


http://www.flickr.com/photos/tejas_babariya/6076392998/

[s.yogendra]

Now, surf the internet on GSRTC's Rajkot-A'bad buses

RAJKOT: If you are travelling in Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) Volvo buses operating between Rajkot and Ahmedabad, you need not worry about internet access. On Saturday, the Rajkot depot of GSRTC started Wi-Fi services for passengers free of cost in Volvo buses operating between these two cites.

Randeepsinh Wala, depot manager, Rajkot, said earlier this week that they had carried out a trial run of the Wi-Fi system and it was successful. "Now onwards, every Volvo bus passenger, who has a laptop, can access internet through Wi-Fi connectivity free of cost," he said.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiati...ccess-internet

[NitinPatel]

એસટી નિગમની તમામ બસોમાં મઘ્યરાત્રિથી પેસેન્જર ટોલટેકસમાં ભાડા વધારો કરવાનો નિર્ણય કરાતાં હવે એસટીની મુસાફરી મોંઘી બનશે. નિગમને પેસેન્જર ટોલટેકસમાં જતી આર્થિક ખોટનો ખાડો પૂરવા માટે હવે રૂ. ૫૦થી ૩૫૦ સુધીની ટિકિટ દરમાં પેસેન્જર પાસેથી સ્લેબ પ્રમાણે ભાવ વધારો કરાયો હોવાનું જાણવા મળ્યું છે.

એસટી નિગમનાં અધિકારીએ જણાવ્યું હતું કે, એસટી નિગમ દ્વારા સોમવારની મઘ્યરાત્રિથી પેસેન્જર ટોલટેકસમાં રૂ. ૫૦થી રૂ. ૩૫૦ સુધીનાં ટિકિટ ભાડા ઉપર સ્લેબ પ્રમાણે વધારો કરવાનો નિર્ણય લેવાયો છે. અત્યાર સુધી પેસન્જરો પાસે ટોલટેકસ પેટે ટિકિટ દીઠ રૂ. ૧ વસૂલવામાં આવતો હતો, પરંતુ, ટોલટેકસનાં ભાવ વઘ્યાં છે. બીજી બાજુ નિગમની બસમાં ૫૦ પેસેન્જરની કેપેસિટી હોય છે. તેમજ દરેક ટ્રીપમાં બસની તમામ સીટો ભરેલી હોય તેવું ન પણ બને.

તેમજ માની લઇએ કે બસની તમામ સીટો ભરેલી હોય તો પણ બસની કેપેસિટી ૫૦ પેસેન્જરની હોય તે પ્રમાણે એક ટ્ર્ીપ દીઠ રૂ. ૫૦ ટોલટેકસ પેટે પ્રાપ્ત થતા હતા. જયારે તેની સામે એસટી નિગમને તે પેટે રૂ. ૩૧૩ ચૂકવવા પડતા હતા. જેને કારણે નિગમ પર ટોલટેકસના આર્થિક બોજની ખાઇ વધતી જતી હતી. જેને કારણે આ ભાવ વધારો કરવામાં આવ્યો છે.

link

[CivilEngineer079]

Artist's view of upcoming Geetamandir GSRTC Stand

[CivilEngineer079]

GSRTC - Gujarat state road transport corporation, is coming up with a new world class terminal in Ahmedabad. Terminal is planned to set up at the end of ring road near RTO circle, opposite Ranip BRTS bus stop.

Following are the artistic images, but the good news is, work has already started. Also according to plan, Gujarat government is planning to have Metro Rail station at the third level of this terminal. If all goes according to plan, this place will have the best connectivity of: State Transport bus + Gujarat Metro + BRTS.

According to sources, apart from other facilities, traveler kits which include Towel, Tooth brush, Soap, etc. will be available at counter for just Rs. 12. Once this terminal is operational, Kalupur Terminal will be redesigned at the same level. In total there will be 11 floors and it will include Shops, Hypermarket, Retail mall, Offices, Food courts, Restaurants, Bank / ATM, Game Zone, Megaplex, Recreational Center, Service Apartments, Gym/ Spa/ Massage center, Banquet Hall, Show Rooms, Business Hub, Corporate Office, Corporate Club, Theme based Market and much more.

[nsshukla]

more number of sleeper, AC and volvo buses are required.

MSRTC upgraded the buses in 2009. The express buses are 2*2 (parivartan), semi-delux buses are with 2*2 AC and luxury are volvo. this move is also required in gujarat

[CivilEngineer079]

GSRTC already provides VOLVO service named Swarnim Express with wifi connectivity. It also provides AC and Sleeper service other than normal Express, Local & Intercity services. It has already upgraded its buses long back. Majority of the buses include T.V's in it.

Last year in 2011, in ETv Gujarati it was shown that Maharashtrians want Gujarat like state transport facilities.

[nsshukla]

there is only 11 volvo buses operated by GSRTC. the number of AC buses and sleeper bus are also 50 only. this is too less as compared to the total number of the passenger transports daily.

express buses needs to be upgraded i.e. express buses run by gsrtc are 3*2 only with 52 seats more over the seats are not comfortable.

semi luxury buses are also with 3*2 configuration MSRTC upgraded it to 2*2 asiad.

this change is required.

[CivilEngineer079]

^ We hope that Mr. Modi look toward it and necessary changes are been made.