PANAJI: With an aim to promote tourism, Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) will soon launch hop-on-hop-off (HOHO) bus service for sightseeing
Chief operating officer of GTDC Rohit Pardeshi said that Goa is the only state in India, which will be offering a service of this kind, and added that“two double-decker buses and two high deck buses will be utilised to provide this service. The HOHO bus service will be an added feature of the state tourism.” All the buses will have two segments – open top, and air-conditioned bottom, which will enable the tourists to have a delightful ride. The buses will be equipped with multilingual auto commentary which will give information about the monuments in Russian, Spanish, Italian Japanese and German besides English and Hindi.
Through a mobile application, the tourists will be able to get information about all the spots, said Pardeshi, adding the service will have an onboard guest relationship executive, who will serve as a guide.
The buses will have televisions and speakers for entertainment. The sight-seeing tour through the HOHO bus service will cost Rs 300 per head for one and half hours to two hours; no fees will be charged for the children below 3 years of age.
The GTDC will also offer one and two-day passes, which will enable the tourists to avail of the service by just one-time booking.
However, the GTDC is yet to be finalise the routes as it has failed to obtain the clearance from the transport department to start the service. It is learnt that transport department is not keen on issuing permanent permit, and instead has offered temporary permit to run the HOHO buses.
“We will launch this service as soon as we get the required permit from the transport department,” said Pardeshi, adding the GTDC will launch the service in association with Pune-based Prasanna Purple Company.