Bhubaneswar, Oct. 13: Come December, you simply have to go online to book a hassle-free journey from the city to Puri in air-conditioned buses.

The inter-city bus service provider, Bhubaneswar-Puri Transport Service Limited, will start online booking for its air-conditioned buses running between the state capital and Puri from December.

Announcing the launch of online booking, Nishikant Mishra, chief executive of the Dream Team Sahara, the agency that runs the service, said the facility would be available on the transport body's website and passengers could select their seats from there.

Mishra said that the air-conditioned buses had been introduced on the route to provide a viable and comfortable travel alternative to commuters, and the online booking system would help streamline the service as well as ensure reduction in the travel time. At present, passengers have to wait for the air-conditioned buses to get filled before they depart from the Master Canteen bus station.

Mishra, however, said the buses would continue to have spot ticket booking mechanism, and it would be done away with gradually converting the entire manual system into an online method.

Passengers travelling to Puri often hesitate to board the air-conditioned buses because of the travel time. Often, the buses that depart from the Master Canteen depot wait for half an hour to pick up passengers, thereby increasing the journey time. While a normal private bus takes around two hours to travel from Puri to Bhubaneswar and vice-versa, the air-conditioned ones take around two-and-a-half hours for the same. This has been a drawback for the service that aims to provide comfortable and on-time journey to passengers.

Welcoming the move, Bhubaneswar resident R.C. Mohanty said: "It will now be convenient for passengers to book seats in advance. The introduction of the online booking system will streamline the booking process and do away with the problem of giving loose change to bus conductors."

While the fare in a normal bus from Bhubaneswar to Puri is Rs 40, it is Rs 100 in the air-conditioned bus.

Those who travel from Puri to Bhubaneswar, too, are excited about the development. Rabindranath Satapathy, a resident of Narendra Pokhari in Puri, said the online booking system would help passengers plan their journey in advance. "Often it becomes difficult for passengers to get seats in the air-conditioned buses. With the introduction of this facility, it will be now be convenient for passengers to book seats in advance," he said, adding that the transport body's move to increase the frequency of buses on the route would help them immensely.

The bus service runs in the PPP mode by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and the Dream Team Shahara plans to increase the fleet to Puri from eight to 12 from the first week of December.

Many passengers prefer to travel in the air-conditioned buses as they are well maintained.

"These buses are convenient especially during the summer. But, passengers often find it difficult to find seats when the buses stop at Kalpana Square. If tickets can be booked in advance, passengers won't have to travel to the Master Canteen bus depot to book tickets," said Manoranjan Pradhan, a businessman, who travels to Puri every week.