The Diwali festival is around the corner and there is a large influx of people coming from Pune by bus and train. Amid the rush, private agents are illegally selling train tickets to passengers, while private bus operators are demanding exorbitant fares.

As the Pune Regional Transport Office (RTO) has issued a strict warning to all tourist bus operators, several people have complained about exorbitant fares being charged by private bus operators.

“Yesterday, when I went to book tickets to Nagpur from Pune at the counter of a private tourist bus operator, they were charging ₹3,500 per ticket. I wanted to book four tickets for my family, but now we have canceled that plan as it is way beyond our budget,” said Santosh Mane, a citizen.

According to the Pune RTO, they have formed squads and launched a special drive to check these tourist bus operations.

It was found that the norms were not being followed and the bus was carrying more number of passengers than its actual capacity, and the main complaint was the overloading issue, which was raised by most of the passengers, the officials said. RTO officials.

“The state transport department has given strict instructions and guidelines to private tourist bus operators; they cannot increase their ticket prices more than 1.5 times over the normal Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus ticket fares. We have also launched a campaign to check such illegal practices,” said Swapnil Bhosale, deputy regional transport officer, Pune RTO.

Meanwhile, there is also a heavy rush of passengers at Pune railway station traveling to various parts of the country by special trains. It is seen that illegal private agents also sell train tickets to passengers at higher prices.

“We received two tickets to Bhopal from an agent for ₹2,000 per ticket as there was a heavy rush for the trains. The normal ticket is around ₹750,” said Meenakshi Kalare, a passenger.