Car hiring up for extended weekend as citizens holiday

 Ahead of the long weekend from Friday, rental cars are charging exorbitant rates with Bangaloreans booking vehicles to visit places around the City for a short vacation.

While the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is plying additional buses to cater to the holiday rush, air fares to certain destinations during the weekend have shot up.

With the Independence Day falling on Friday followed by the weekend, people are heading for quick trips to Wayanad, Coorg, Chikmagalur, Yercaud and other scenic places close to Bangalore.

Consequently, most taxis, maxi cabs have been booked. Travel agents in the City said that most working people appeared to have taken Thursday off to make the most of the break.

Says K Radhakrishna Holla of the Bangalore Tourist Taxi Owners’ Association, “Most vehicles have already been booked. In fact, bookings were made about two weeks ago. Bigger vehicles, seven-, nine-, 22-seaters are booked for families, groups etc. Even other operators, travel agents have borrowed our cars after running out of vehicles.” So much so that to cater to the rush, even the KSRTC is plying 100 extra buses to various places in neighbouring states.

Hotels, guesthouses are also booked to the capacity and online queries for booking are being declined. Air fare has also gone up for weekend travel with Bangalore-Goa tickets being priced between Rs 6,000 and 7,000.

Preethi V, who works with Wipro, said: “I had planned to go out with my colleagues long ago. So we booked a maxi cab about three weeks ago for Wayanad. We even booked the resort then itself to avoid last-minute rush.”

Not everyone is, however, good at planning and many holidaymakers have to settle for less. Ramesh and his wife Sanjana wanted to vacation in Goa for three days but realised that train and air tickets are either unavailable or are too expensive and even the hotels in their budget are full. “So we decided to go closer home for a day’s trip to Yercaud,” said Ramesh, who works in the public sector.