Shuttle bus to operate at Ajanta Caves from today

Aurangabad, Nov 11:

The hardship faced by the tourists at Ajanta Caves will now be a thing of the past as the district administration has roped in private participation to operate shuttle buses between Fardapur T-Point and Ajanta Caves (a distance of 4-km), from tomorrow (November 12) morning.

It so happened that the district collector Sunil Chavan had a meeting with the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) regional manager, Moushami Kose today morning. To overcome the plight of tourists at Ajanta Caves due to the absence of shuttle buses, the collector then ordered the Regional Transport Officer (RTO) to arrange good condition private buses, as an alternate arrangement to shuttle bus, immediately.

MTDC regional manager said, " We were taking up the issue of inconvenience faced by the tourists at Ajanta Caves for the past couple of days. We had corresponded with the sub-divisional officer (SDO, Sillod) yesterday and requested alternate arrangements. Today morning, we met the district collector and brought to his notice the impact of the MSRTC strike and how the tourists are pushed to face inconvenience due to the non-operation of the shuttle buses. He then spoke to the RTO and told to rope in private participation and arrange the shuttle buses from tomorrow."

When contacted the RTO Sanjay Maitrewar said," Acting upon the orders and assessing the demand for buses, we had arranged four school buses to shuttle between Fardapur T-Point and Ajanta Caves, while two buses of private operators are arranged at Ellora Caves. These buses will be operated from tomorrow (Friday) morning. They will be in operation till the strike of MSRTC is not called off."

The president of Aurangabad Tourism Development Foundation (ADTF) Jaswant Singh welcomed the development saying it will help save the monument from earning a bad name and getting its image maligned. The tourists will not have to face further hardship and could enjoy their trip without any hurdles and at an affordable cost, he said.

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10 private cars in operation today

Meanwhile, the MTDC's manager (Fardapur) Ramdas Kshirsagar had submitted a letter urging the SDO (Sillod) to grant permission to operate 10 private cars so as to transport the tourists between Fardapur T-Point and Ajanta Caves on November 10. The shuttle bus service has been halted from Monday (November 8) and it has forced the tourists and visitors to walk on foot. Later on, the tehsildar (Soyegaon) Ramesh Jaswant has also written a letter to SDO (Sillod) and sought permission to operate the 10 private vehicles. He submitted the list mentioning the names of drivers, their vehicle numbers and the type of four-wheeler (all cars).

According to the tourism associates, " The private cars were allowed to transport the tourists from 3 pm today. However, it was a temporary arrangement made today. However, the private shuttle buses will be operating regularly from tomorrow."