Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation will add over 5,000 new buses to its fleet to facilitate easy travel of devotees who will attend the 2025 Maha Kumbh to be held in Prayagraj, an official release said on Saturday.
The new buses will cost the government about Rs 2,000 crore, it said.
Preparations for organising the Maha Kumbh have been underway since 2019. Around 40 crore devotees are expected to take part in the fair in 2025.
Transport Minister Dayashankar Singh said on the directions of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, a plan has been made to purchase new buses before the Maha Kumbh. The new buses will be added to the UPSRTC fleet in a planned manner.
These new buses will be exclusively used to ferry passengers to the Maha Kumbh. With this, the journey of a large number of devotees coming to the Maha Kumbh will become easier, he said. Buses will be available every 10 minutes on all routes, the release said.
UPSRTC MD Sanjay Kumar said the corporation will purchase 1,575 buses by March 2023. Out of this, 1,200 buses will be added to the UPSRTC fleet immediately while the rest will be added in April-May, he said. The UPSCRTC will purchase 2,000 buses between April 2023 and March 2024, and another 1,500 between April and December 2024, he said.
These buses will be equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and the government will spend about Rs 2,000 crore to expand the UPSRTC fleet, he added.
With the addition of the new buses, the corporation will scrap the old ones. At present, there are 11,200 buses in the UPSRTC fleet.
In 2019, over 24 crore devotees took part in the Maha Kumbh. While Rs 4,200 crore was spent on the Maha Kumbh in 2019, the government has set a budget of Rs 6,800 crore for the religious congregation in 2025, the release said. —PTIÂ