Bullock carts ferry tourists for few kms till Ajanta caves as buses don't ply due to MSRTC strike

Several tourists had to cover the distance of around four kilometers to reach the world famous Ajanta caves near here by sitting in bullock carts instead of buses on Thursday as the state transport employees went on a strike in the morning, an official said.

Several tourists had to cover the distance of around four kilometers to reach the world famous Ajanta caves near here by sitting in bullock carts instead of buses on Thursday as the state transport employees went on a strike in the morning, an official said. Some of the tourists even preferred to walk this four-km distance between the parking bay near the caves till the ticket window, he said.

''Tourists visiting the Ajanta caves couldn't take the regular state transport buses between the parking facility and the caves as the service remained shut due to the strike of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) employees. The closure of the ferry bus service also impacted the footfall of tourists to the caves,'' a senior official of the world heritage site's office said.

Nearly 100 tourists visited the Ajanta caves and this number was lower than usual, he said. ''When local villagers came to know about the state transport employees' strike, they brought their bullock carts to the parking lot to serve the tourists. Nearly five-six such carts ferried the tourists through the day. Many of them even walked from the parking lot to the caves,'' the official added.

The Ajanta cave complex is located nearly 100 km away from Aurangabad city.

MSRTC employees went on a ''spontaneous agitation'' in the morning over their various demands, including DA merger with salary. The bus operations at several depots of the state-run transport undertaking, including at Mumbai Central, where the MSRTC's headquarters is located, were stopped in support of the agitation, officials said. The MSRTC is one of the biggest public transport corporations in the county with a fleet of more than 16,000 buses and around 93,000 employees, including drivers and conductors. Before the pandemic, around 65 lakh passengers used to travel in the MSRTC buses everyday. PTI AW NP NP

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