BHARATHI - PATHANAMMTHITTA TO BANGALORE

Date: 03-03-2013
Trip: Pathanamthitta - Bangalore
Bus: BHARATHI B9R - KA-07-A-1000
Boarding: PATHANAMTHITTA
Departure: 3.45 PM (03:45 PM)
Arrival: 06:00 AM (6:21 AM) SILK BOARD
Seat No: I 2
Fare: 1050

My trip was planned all of sudden, it was Wednesday and almost all the return ticket were full leaving the last row few seats.  At last I called up gold class for a ticket and he finally arranged a seat for me in bharathi from Pathanamthitta .thanks a lot to gold class.

The day of journey :

Reached Pathanamthitta at 3.35. The bus was parked in front of travel Centre. Went to office asked for the seat which gold class arranged. The agent said the ticket charge was 1200. Then I said gold class said the ticket price is 1050. He called him up and confirmed it and my boarding pass was issued. My seat was I2. 3 passengers boarded here. The bus was fitted with many musical horns . the driver was trying each horn testing which is better and finally set to one tune. Interiors were clean but outside the bus had few dents , cracked windshield and broken side window. Bus was not even washed.

The bus left at the scheduled time 3.45. ac was set to 21 degrees. The bus went straight through walkers. 3 more boarded in. it took prakanam route towards kozhenchery. Shawls were alrady placed on the seats . it had a lot of rattling sound and some screeching sound when brakes are applied.. the driver was a tamilian. Lot of honkings . took left from elanthoor towards kozhenchery. He was goin on 60-80s on the t.k road. Lot of traffic too was there , so had to slow down frequently. Reached kozhenchery at 4.10. 6 passengers boarded here. Finally proceeded towards thiruvalla. Stopped at tvla for 5 minutes and departed at 4.37. a white S.Kallada kl-45 regn bus passed by . proceeded to changanashery . reached MM travels at 4.50 and municipal stand at 4.52. bus did not go inside, one passenger boarded from der .

 reached kottayam kodimatha at 5.15. bus entered the stand . kottayam g4 was getting ready there and S.Kallada departed when we reached. Few passengers boarded and finally waited til 5.34 for two passengers. They were not picking call too. Finally they said they are waiting at bakers junction. Reached bakers jn at 5.39. few passengers boarded from there. The bus running to pta was the ex- bng-mum/manipal bus. Reached ettumanoor at 5.55. movie was played after ettumannor. It was MASTERS.  bus took a  right after ettumanoor towards muvatupuzha . reached kuruvilangad at 6.11 , monipally at 6.22. bus was maintaining consistent speed on this stretch. Not so fast though. Reached koothattukulam at 6.35 and finally muvattupuzha at 7.04. rear tv was not opened all through the movie. Sharma non ac ( atlas) reached mvtpa at 7.15. finally we departed from there was 7.28

reached perumbavoor at 7.50 . there was a bike loading there. Pproceeded to angamaly and finally reached there at 8.15. there was just one passenger to board. But the bus wasted 7 minutes there and left at 7.22. unnecessary time wasting. Maybe collection talks with the agent there . reached richus for dinner break at 8.26. the bus took a reverse and parked in. kottayam S.Kallada and the atlas sharma was already parked there. After dinner waited for the drivers . in the mean time, ksrtc garuda reached there at 8.45 followed by a sharma non ac and SONA b9r and A1 travels. Left after dinner at 8.53

apart from the default tubes, the bus was fitted with extra led lights , fitted near the tubes. And the sleeping lights were yellow compared to the blue ones seen in most Volvos now. Felt it a bit disturbing. Reached chalakudi at 9.03. use of dippers was less. Tooo much honkings . crossed thrichur nhai toll at 9.21. took left towards thrichur town at thalore. Reached thrichur at 9.35 and departed at 9.40. the bus occupancy was full by now. Five minutes later , the bus entered a pump beside city centre. Fueling took place for 15 minutes and finally left at 10 from there. 

Book took shornur –ottapalam route.. the driver was slow on this route. At some places he picked up speed. reached Palakkad at 11.20. walayar at 11.45. Left walayar at 11.54. since sitting in the last rows I dint feel to continue watching what’s happening next. Finally dozed off.  Had no idea which route the bus took. Was it palladam or the direct one.. it was 5.22 in the morning. And the cleaner shouted hosur with lights on. one passenger alighted there. The bus took the NH via krishnagiri not the rayakottah road. A lot traffic after hosur . reached attibele toll at 5.43. after passing the toll the bus stopped for 4 minutes. Went further towards narayana hrudayalaya hospital. The bike was dropped there. Finally reached BETL flyover toll at 6.07

The kottayam G4 ( 5738 – yellow ) was on the side lane on the toll. Followed by Skallada’s B11R. I felt it’s a late arrival for a bus leaving kollam at 5. Left toll plaza at 6.12. moved ahead and a passenger was dropped there. Took over the flyover at 6.13.  minutes later , SRM passed us overtaking through the left. Finally we were dropped at 6.21 at silk board.. we stopped behind SRM . it was 3340. Alighted at silk board and walked ahead to catch a bus. Then saw the G4 ISHIFT reaching silk board at 6.25. followed by some ksrtc ACC’s and sleepers. 

 ksrtc garuda pic taken during dinner break

19 minutes at kytm , 25 minutes at muvatupuzha , 7 minutes at angamaly, 5 minutes at thrichur/tvla, 10 minutes at walayar. Almost one hour of time wastages apart from the 30 minutes of dinner break and 15 minutes of fueling. The bus would have reached easily by 5.30 -5.45 leaving the unwanted time wastages.

Ratings :

Cleanliness: 4/5
Punctuality: 4.5/5
Staff Behavior: 5/5
Overall: 4/5