India - Now a Portal for Bus Travel...!!!

These are times when most of the travel portals opt and look more towards Air travelers by competing against each to get their margins.

I found a unique portal redBus, which is currently targetting and caters to the domestic bus traveller. Apparently the website www.redbus.in is a portal, that integrates private bus operators (primarily long distance operators) and travellers. The service has been launched last month and it looks like that they are running their beta trial.

redBus is an innovation from Pilani Soft Labs Pvt. Ltd. The company is setup by BITS-Pilani alumnus with the vision to innovate for everyone's convenience.

They get inventory from fleet operators and put them online for sale. The tickets are for sale till 12 hours before the travel date. Passengers can book tickets using credit card, debit card and bank transfer. For transactions, they have already partnered with a few operators like Jabbar Travels, Rajesh Travels and Diwakar Travels - all South-based at the moment - adding some 60 buses to the system.

The company is part of the Bangalore's TiE-EAP, and is not venture-funded yet. However, in the near future they would be rolling out in other cities too. By mid-September, they are starting a branch office in Hyderabad and in Chennai in early October.