Tourists interested in visiting places of mythological significance in the state would not have to wait for long for dedicated luxury bus service on circuits related to Lord Buddha and sites mentioned in the Ramayan.

Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation (BSTDC) has cleared the proposal for procurement of 10 special tourist buses that would run on Buddhist and Ramayan circuits.

A proposal would be sent to the state tourism department to seek an approval, as the buses would be procured under a subsidy scheme.

“The corporation has recently moved a proposal to procure 10 air-conditioned luxury buses under the subsidy scheme of the department. The total amount of subsidy proposed by BSTDC is Rs 4 crore. The operator would be given 25 per cent of the price of the bus or Rs 20 lakh, whichever is less, against procurement of each bus. At present 10 buses are proposed to run under this scheme, which means subsidy amount of Rs 2-2.5 crore would be released and the rest (Rs 2 crore) would be released for the procurement of more buses under this scheme in the future. The buses would run as tourist special buses on Buddhist and Ramayan circuits, among others under public-private partnership mode,” said a senior BSTDC official. Sources said the proposed buses would be operated from Patna via Bodhgaya, Nalanda, Vaishali, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Sitamarhi, Buxar and Bhojpur among others.

“The corporation would float tenders to procure these buses as soon as the department gives a green light to the proposal. Depending on the response from operators, the services would be started,” said the BSTDC official.

After commencement of operation of the buses, tourists would be able to book tickets from counters at BSTDC’s headquarters at Hotel Kautilya Vihar on Buddha Marg in the state capital.

At present, four Volvo buses of BSTDC operate on two routes — Patna-Purnea and Patna-Ranchi. They also rolled out from BSTDC’s headquarters. The BSTDC recently issued a work order to Mahindra Logistics Limited for running two 40-seater AC buses on the Patna-Bodhgaya route. The buses would operate under public-private partnership mode from April.

On the other hand, there has been a slow progress in the scheme of running double-decker and caravan-type buses for local sightseeing in Patna, Bodhgaya and Rajgir.

“Several interested bus manufacturing firms have requested us to extend the deadline to submit the request of proposal for running the double-decker and caravan-type buses. As these buses are mostly manufactured on demand, the corporation has extended the deadline. Now, it would take a couple of months to start operation of these special buses,” said the BSTDC official.

The original deadline for the submission of request of proposal was December 10, 2011. Sources said the caravan-type AC bus would have two bedrooms, a sitting area having a capacity of six persons, one folding canopy tent at the front and a toilet. It would also have folding chairs and tables.

A generator set would also be attached to the bus.