Kolhapur: The local transport body has decided to deploy eight buses for its Durga Darshan initiative during the nine-day Navaratra festival.Durga Darshan is a packaged tour to the temples in the city dedicated to the goddess. Every year, the Darshan bus attracts over 8,000 to 10,000 women devotees to visit these nine temples located in and around the city.The total duration of the visit is around five hours and the KMT's two buses have already been pre booked by the women devotees from Tuesday evening.Suni Jadhav, assistant transport inspector of KMT and in-charge of Durga Darshan service said, "Last year, the revenue generated through the initiative was around Rs 3.5 lakh. This year, we have increased the number of buses considering the response we had received last year. Around 50 trips will be made every day by eight to nine buses each with a seating capacity of 34 passengers. We are going to deploy new buses procured recently for Durga Darshan."The KMT charges Rs 110 per person for Durga Darshan and Rs 4,240 for the troupes registering for the tour. The starting point of the tour is the control centre of KMT located at Shahu Maidan and the first trip will start at eight in the morning.The tour will end at the Mahalakshmi temple. The officials claim that the earning of the KMT for every kilometre is more during Navaratra than during other season. The KMT has assured that more number of buses will be made available if the demand increases. The bus stops between 10 and 20 minutes at every stoppage."The initiative was started in 2002. The local corporators and wealthy people book individual buses for the locals or their relatives. The initiative is now followed by parallel transports such as autos and four wheeler private transport. They too will be providing tour service to the temples," said Jadhav.

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