[M516]

Originally Posted by binaiks

That Garage is not of Sharma. It is "NAS Garage" - NAS/Neelu is an operator who leases out buses to various operators. They own a huge fleet of trucks as well. They own a few Luxura Sleepers now. Their first two buses operate on the Bangalore-Chennai route (for Shama Sardar). They recently bought two more, which operate in the Bangalore-Hyderabad route. This time, they are operating in their own brand "Neelu Travels".

This is some good information. Could you also please provide more information on how the lease program works with these guys, if you do have that information ofcourse. Thanks in advance

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by M516

This is some good information. Could you also please provide more information on how the lease program works with these guys, if you do have that information ofcourse. Thanks in advance

Sorry, I do not have specific information about this particular lease (NAS -> Sharma).

Normally the lease "programs" available are:

1. All EMIs, taxes paid by the operator - in this, the bus would remain at the operators' garage.
2. The owner pays "mother" tax (i.e., road tax for the state in which the bus is registered) - the other taxes are borne by the operator. The driver is also appointed by the operator. Diesel is borne by the operator. Maintenance is by the owner. The operator pays a fixed rent per day to the owner.
3. The owner pays all taxes, bears all expenses (including driver, fuel, maintenance) - the operator pays a fixed amount per day/per km to the owner.

There is another kind of "lease" - where the contractor pays a fixed amount per day to the owner and is in charge of filling seats - the rest are similar to point 3 above.

[nkrishnap]

Originally Posted by binaiks

Sorry, I do not have specific information about this particular lease (NAS -> Sharma).

Normally the lease "programs" available are:

1. All EMIs, taxes paid by the operator - in this, the bus would remain at the operators' garage.
2. The owner pays "mother" tax (i.e., road tax for the state in which the bus is registered) - the other taxes are borne by the operator. The driver is also appointed by the operator. Diesel is borne by the operator. Maintenance is by the owner. The operator pays a fixed rent per day to the owner.
3. The owner pays all taxes, bears all expenses (including driver, fuel, maintenance) - the operator pays a fixed amount per day/per km to the owner.

There is another kind of "lease" - where the contractor pays a fixed amount per day to the owner and is in charge of filling seats - the rest are similar to point 3 above.

Pondering over the former type of lease, the operater takes care of vehicle maintenance, taxes, manpower, etc, what sort of revenue sharing does these type of lease have? Any insight into this? Its a very interesting thing to understand how this business model works. Who is responsible for the occupancy of the bus?

Would love to join you on one of your bus/rail fanning sessions.

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by nkrishnap

Pondering over the former type of lease, the operater takes care of vehicle maintenance, taxes, manpower, etc, what sort of revenue sharing does these type of lease have? Any insight into this? Its a very interesting thing to understand how this business model works. Who is responsible for the occupancy of the bus?

The first type of lease happens really rarely. The second and third ones are the most common. It is the operators' responsibility to fill seats - the bus owner gets a "rent" to cover his expenses (EMI, Maintenance, etc).

In the last type - the one where the bus is owned by the operator, but a travel agent takes it on "contract" - it is the agents' responsibility to fill seats - he will have to pay a minimum amount irrespective of the actual number of seats.

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by M516

...Could you also please provide more information on how the lease program works with these guys, if you do have that information ofcourse. Thanks in advance

This can't be said as a lease. This is basically an arrangement between two parties.

Originally Posted by nkrishnap

Pondering over the former type of lease, the operater takes care of vehicle maintenance, taxes, manpower, etc, what sort of revenue sharing does these type of lease have? Any insight into this? Its a very interesting thing to understand how this business model works. Who is responsible for the occupancy of the bus?

Would love to join you on one of your bus/rail fanning sessions.

In this case, NAS (owner) is responsible for maintenance and KA permit. Rest all are the responsibility of Shama Sardar (operator) fuel cost, TN permit, driver salary (but drivers are appointed by NAS). Operator will pay fixed monthly rental to owner irrespective of the number of seats filled. For any additional trip apart from the scheduled one, there will be additional pay.

In this case NAS is a very close acquaintance to Sharma and they both got the first ( there are many first owners ) Mercedes Benz buses in India apart from Konduskar and Neeta.
NAS was approached by Volvo for B11R earlier but they were not much interested to take for the not so attractive value proposition.
Shama Sardar started this way of business, and now they own about 15 new 12M CRS and quite a few second hand Volvo's as well.

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by TKMCE

THe 10% discount on Tue- Thu is a fantastic move... And restricting it to advance bookings means that now many people wll switch over to KaSRTC from private operators on these days.

Actually, this is one of lean season for intercity operators due to annual exams. So this specific dates may help them to get more passengers.

[JMaruru]

Originally Posted by TKMCE

The best option is VRL - Most of their Mumbai buses go to Borivali. Not too sure if it stops at Dahisar E. Two of the KaSRTC Multi Axles to Mumbai also terminate at Borivai. They are also not a bad option. Again not too sure of ther stop at Dahisar. Thy may arrange a pick up van from their JP nagar office.

Neeta has 8 services of which 3 are 2 X 1 Volvo sleepers. On the Mumbai Bangalore direction, all these buses have a stop at Gokulanand Hotel so I assume the reutrn may be the case as well - but dont count on it as customer service of these guys is the worst of the lot. And if you are calling to check, better speak to their control room in Mumbai and not waste time with their Bangalore agents.

Are there any better options other than KaSRTC, Neeta and VRL for Non A/C travel between B'lore - Mumbai? Please advice.

[coolclouds]

For Non A/c, I think Sharma, National and Manowj does regular 2+2 buses. But, all of them would take much more running time.

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by JMaruru

Are there any better options other than KaSRTC, Neeta and VRL for Non A/C travel between B'lore - Mumbai? Please advice.

Originally Posted by coolclouds

For Non A/c, I think Sharma, National and Manowj does regular 2+2 buses. But, all of them would take much more running time.

The only reliable Non Ac service is from VRL. Others will take more time and its almost a long distance stage carriage.
Also VRL's entire fleet in Mumbai - Blore route is 12M CRS and hence the travel time is relatively lesser (between 19 to 20 hrs) compared to Sharma / National's Viking ( between 23 to 24 hrs). Infact it can be little higher also in the later cases, where they use three buses for one up and down. So it need be the same bus which returns to Blore should go back, so driver is in no hurry.

[TKMCE]

I will agree with Ashley. I have travelled Sharma in Non AC (not recently) but their NON AC buses are basically luggage carriers first and passenger carriers second ,atleast as far as my experience goes which was fairly extensive at one time mainly because Volvos had not come intpo the picture in a big way then.


On VRL recently I took the 10.15 Multi Axle from Borivali to Bangalore. There is a 8 AM Non AC (sleeper/seater) which we caught up only after we entered the Kanrataka border.

By the way why are you preferrinf a Non A/C??? VRL charges 800 Rs for a seat and 1050/1100 for berths in the Non AC service while they charge 1000 Rs for a Muti Axle Volvo. They also have a IShift Multi Axle Sleeper Coach at 1500 Rs.


Sharma charges 700 for a Non AC seat while Multi Axle is 1000 and a Luxura A?C sleeper is 1100/1200 .

[aroonanand]

Need help on travelling by bus from Bangalore to Munnar.
Unfortunately unable to get tickets on the only AC bus on this route, which is a KPN AC Sleeper. So I am thinking of taking a bus to the nearest place from where I can get a TNSTC government / private bus to Munnar. I guess Theni or Udumalpet would be the options (not considering Kochi due to longer distance from Blr, as well as longer travel from Kochi to Munnar) and plenty of tickets are available to both Theni and Udumalpet

Any tips on which option to take (Theni or Udumalpet) as well as availability / frequency of buses and the expected travel time to Munnar from these places is welcome

Cheers!

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by aroonanand

Need help on travelling by bus from Bangalore to Munnar.
Unfortunately unable to get tickets on the only AC bus on this route, which is a KPN AC Sleeper. So I am thinking of taking a bus to the nearest place from where I can get a TNSTC government / private bus to Munnar. I guess Theni or Udumalpet would be the options (not considering Kochi due to longer distance from Blr, as well as longer travel from Kochi to Munnar) and plenty of tickets are available to both Theni and Udumalpet

Any tips on which option to take (Theni or Udumalpet) as well as availability / frequency of buses and the expected travel time to Munnar from these places is welcome

Cheers!

SRS operates Non AC Sleeper between Bangalore - Munnar via Palani, Udumalpet. This is relatively good. This is likely to reach Munnar by around 9.30AM.

This route is the shortest than via Theni.

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by aroonanand

Any tips on which option to take (Theni or Udumalpet) as well as availability / frequency of buses and the expected travel time to Munnar from these places is welcome

The shortest route would be via Udumalpet. It takes about 3 hrs from either Theni or Udumalpet to Munnar. Both routes have fairly frequent KeSRTC services.

There are a couple of AC Sleepers to Udumalpet (Hindusthan and KPN) and also an AC Seater from ABT. There are non-AC seater/sleeper buses from SRS, KPN, etc. Kallada has a Bangalore-Kattappana bus as well, which offers van drop to Munnar.

If you chose Theni, there is an AC sleeper by KPN, Volvo Multi-axle by Kallada. The other options to Theni are non-AC services.

[dhandapanik]

Originally Posted by aroonanand

Need help on travelling by bus from Bangalore to Munnar.
Unfortunately unable to get tickets on the only AC bus on this route, which is a KPN AC Sleeper. So I am thinking of taking a bus to the nearest place from where I can get a TNSTC government / private bus to Munnar. I guess Theni or Udumalpet would be the options (not considering Kochi due to longer distance from Blr, as well as longer travel from Kochi to Munnar) and plenty of tickets are available to both Theni and Udumalpet

Any tips on which option to take (Theni or Udumalpet) as well as availability / frequency of buses and the expected travel time to Munnar from these places is welcome

Cheers!

Shortest distance to Munnar from Bangalore is Udumalpet route. There is one KSRTC Rajahamsa to Munnar from Bangalore. Apart from these we have ABT AC seater, Hindusthan AC Sleeper, KPN AC Sleeper and SRS Non AC Sleeper. SRS is unreliable and i havent seen them arriving at Udumalpet on time. Based on my experience, i prefer Hindusthan AC Sleeper or ABT in this route.

Timings of Munnar bound buses from udumalpet:
1:30 AM, 2:15 AM, 5:30 AM, 6:30 AM, 7:00 AM, 7:40 AM, 8:40 AM, 10:40 AM, 11:30 AM, 1:30 PM, 3:15 PM, 4:40 PM, 7:30 PM and 10:00 PM.

Theni also has very good connections from Munnar. But not sure about the bus timings from Theni to Munnar.

[RajeswaranK7]

Has anyone travelled in KPN Madurai-Chennai 1 + 1 executive sleeper bus?? if so can you give me a gist on the experience. My wife is planning to take service. We usually book the regular 2+1 service with two berths. Its spacious and convenient for us to travel with our kid. This time she is travelling alone, so wanted to know if this service is good and the berth can accommodate a 2 year old and a normal built person. Any info on this will be helpful