Hans Travels Indore is one of the several bus opertors in Indore, who operates 30-40 seater buses that compete with the State Road Transport Corporation interstate transport services.
A brief note before I come to the point of review -
Inter state bus transportation probably was the first of the few areas that got privatised in India. But this industry in specific has been given a miss by a lot of analysts because I think such transport services are taken for granted and no one analyses them for any kind of standards or quality of services.
As a result, most of such bus/tour operators have a field day making money by the minute fleecing harrowed travellers, plus’zero’ accountability for quality of service and standard travel comforts due to lack of any kind of government standards and regulations. When the state services themselves are so pathetic at the state levels, what can you expect from the state or center to standardise for the private operators?
So coming to this travel operator, though I have travelled by other travel operators too - viz. Vijayant(back in the 1990s) then Royal Star and now Hans, I am writing about Hans since I used their service recently.
Let me just list the points I have observed most of which are common to all these bus operators out of Indore but exclusive ones to this operator are marked with a
a. Pick up points for all buses in Indore
@ Navlakha bus stand(and Dhakkanwala Kuan locality *)
other pick up points are along the Agra Bombay NH3 highway till Mhow.
Note-Raj Travels Volve have a separate pick up point on ABRoad near Gita Bhavan Signal.
b. A/C sleeper bus service
(these guys got the Volvo models first I was told, but now every operator has them,
these buses are customised to have 30 odd sleeper beds in them - 2x1 config)
for this specific config they have a pick up point along the Western Express Highway from Borivli till Bandra;
They even pick up people who are booked onto the Non-A/C sleeper bus along this route and ask you to change at the Sion office stop; the non A/C bus service starts from fort
c. Non A/C sleeper bus service(2x1 config)
starts from Fort and has pick up points along the route at JJFlyover, Parel, Dadar TT, Sion
d. Non A/C semi sleeper(2x2 sitting) - they have reduced the number of these buses
e. Personal LCD screen - they used to show movies on the buses earlier but now these are no-frills services for the sleeper bus. They have stopped showing the movies for about 6 odd months now
Only the 2x2 sitting buses of all operators have a video show but that Video being operational is not guaranteed
they have even started providing rugs and pillows in the A/C bus lately
f. Fares - this is where it gets very difficult to find a justification for their fares vs. service
these guys also ply on the same NH3 highway as the other bus operators, not sure why they charge so exorbitant prices and there is obviously no regulation or reason given for it.
Rs. 800/- one way - sleeper A/C bus - off peak season(Jan - Mar)
Rs.600/- one way - sleeper non A/C bus - off peak
Rs. 1200/- one way sleeper A/C - peak season
Rs. 1000/- one way sleeper non A/C - peak season
First bus service to tie up with the online bus ticket booking site https://redbus.in
Now other bus service operators also are charging in line with these guys but they do offer 2x2 sitting in Rs. 350/- also
g. Departure times:
A/C sleeper service Indore Mumbai ex. Dhakkanwala Kuan - 6pm - 7pm, 2 services
A/C sleeper Mumbai ex. Sion - 6pm - 630pm daily
A/C sleeper Mumbai ex. Borivali - 4pm - 430pm daily
A/C sleeper Mumbai ex. Fort - 430pm - 5pm
all non A/C buses depart about 30-45 min. later as they also carry inter state cargo service too
h. Arrival times
A/C service in Mumbai ex. Thane anytime between 9am-10am depending on the traffic on the 2 ghats at Manpur in MP and Kasara in Maharashtra
another 30-45 min. at the Thane octroi station
other scheduled stops on the Eastern Express highway at each of the suburbs Ghatkopar, Airoli junction, Vikhroli, Chembur, Sion
Non A/c service 30 min later than A/C services
i. in between stops @(review of these in between locations call for a tale of their own)
Doodhi in M.P. after Manpur ghats,
a late night 3am stop somewhere after crossing the border in Maharashtra,
7am / 8am stop at Shahpur, Padgha area in Maharashtra
g. overall service rating is very subjective depending on how frequently you travel and which service operators you have tried before, but compared to other service operators, they are a little better, hence the’Good’ rating
given that one does not have a choice of quality between operators, these guys have a pickup from Borivali which is convenient for the western suburb residents in Mumbai, which is good
the highly unjustified ticket pricing and their take or leave it attitude sucks but we as passengers are bearing the worst quality of services in this nation and are bearing it’silently’
for want of better services, HANS travels is a little more punctual, though they can’t fly over the other traffic, but they have to still improve a lot on their overall cost of service.
other points on this review as and when I get more time to write.
do write back with your views also to help me focus on other specifics.