Ahmedabad, Sep 21 — The Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) will run around 30,000 additional bus trips with a fleet of 1,000 buses for the Bhadarvi Poonam Mela at Ambaji, with the special services expected to serve around 15 lakh pilgrims.
Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi on Monday inaugurated the additional services and flagged off new buses in the presence of Minister of State for Transport Pravin Mali and Minister of State for Urban Development Darshana Vaghela.
The special services will operate until September 26 through the Palanpur, Mehsana, Himatnagar and Ahmedabad divisions.
GSRTC has also established 10 booths at Ambaji, with supervisors and booth in-charges deployed to assist pilgrims and passengers.
The additional services will provide regular connectivity between Ambaji and major destinations, including Gabbar, Abu Road, Danta, Deesa, Palanpur and Siddhpur.
Services will also operate towards Mehsana, Visnagar, Becharaji, Vadnagar and Kheralu, as well as Himatnagar, Idar, Khedbrahma, Ahmedabad, Shamlaji and Bhiloda.
The Transport Department has arranged temporary shelters, drinking water and public toilets for pilgrims.
Mic announcements will be made at the fair premises, while hoardings and banners will provide information and contact numbers of booth in-charges.
For emergency and operational support, cranes, mechanic teams, ambulances and fire-fighting vehicles have been deployed at the depots.
A GPS-based Central Control Room has also been set up to monitor the buses in real time. The scale of the arrangements is larger than last year's operations.
During the 2025 fair, around 900 buses operated 28,506 trips and transported 13.09 lakh passengers.
This year, arrangements have been made to manage the movement of pilgrims travelling to and from Ambaji during the fair period.
Principal Secretary of the Transport Department Hareet Shukla; Ahmedabad Mayor Hitesh Barot; and MLAs Amit Thaker, Hasmukh Patel, Amul Bhatt, Kaushik Jain and Dinesh Kushwaha, along with other officials, attended the event.