Last Updated : Oct 15, 2020 08:57 PM IST | Source: Moneycontrol.com

Online platform redBus recorded 300,000 bookings during October 3 weekend

The maximum number of these bookings were made from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and West Bengal. Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Ahmedabad remained the top destinations to travel.

Moneycontrol News
Representative Image
Representative Image

Indian online bus ticketing platform redBus has said that more than 300,000 bus bookings were made during the October 3 extended weekend.

The maximum number of these bookings were made from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and West Bengal. Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Ahmedabad remained the top destinations to travel.

The company had also said it has witnessed  50 percent jump in the traffic in the month of October as inter-state restriction has been lifted in the Unlock 5 guidelines.

Close

Earlier, restriction on interstate bus operations was lifted in May but bus operations remained staggered in many states.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

View more
How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

View more
Show

related news

According to the company, the busiest routes from where the services have begun are Bengaluru-to-Hyderabad, Delhi-to-Chandigarh, Hyderabad-to-Vijayawada, Asansol-to-Kolkata and Gorakhpur-to-Delhi.

As Mint reported, the company has seen increased bus bookings from the Tier II and Tier III cities with most booking demands coming from Jaipur, Gorakhpur, Indore, Visakhapatnam, Kalaburagi, Rajkot, Malda and Guwahati accounting for 67 percent of the current bookings.

The company has also witnessed the number of bookings made by first-time customers on its platform from 11 percent before COVID-19 to 21 percent post-COVID-19.

"We expect this trend to continue with increase in economic activity, further relaxation in locked-down activities, the upcoming festive season and also when colleges/universities reopen. On many routes, we have also seen a substitution of demand moving from trains to buses," redBus CEO Prakash Sangam, said in a statement.

For the safety of its passengers, redBus introduced strict safety protocols wherein passengers can check pictures of the safety measures taken in the bus before making the booking.
First Published on Oct 15, 2020 08:57 pm

tags #Business #coronavirus #India #redBus