redBus, an intercity bus ticketing firm has said that over 60,000 Keralites living in Bengaluru have booked tickets on its platform to travel to various destinations in Kerala during Onam.
The company said on September 7 that it had witnessed a 20% surge in bookings from Bengaluru to Kerala ahead of Onam festival this time, compared to previous years. A rise in seat reservations was noticeable from September 4 which prompted the State’s Road Transport Corporations to gear up and facilitate additional schedules to cater to the sudden spike in demand.
According to redBus, Madiwala and Silkboard continue to be major boarding points for people moving from Bengaluru to various destinations in Kerala.
Some 12% of these passengers are booked for Ernakulam, Kozhikode (10%), Thiruvananthapuram (8%), Thrissur (6%), Kannur (6%), while the rest (58%) are traveling to other parts of the State, as per redBus.
The top five bus operators that provide services on these routes include KSRTC (Kerala), Yathra Logistics, A1 Travels, Kallada Travels, and Kerala Lines.
redBus has globally sold more than 180 million bus tickets to date since its inception in 2006 in Bengaluru. The platform is now part of the travel booking site, MakeMyTrip.
“We have not visited our homes property in the last couple of years because of Covid. Also, Bengaluru is currently in a total mess and no fun celebrating Onam here,“ said Arjun and Kalyani Nair, an IT couple who traveled to Kerala on Monday.
