Wednesday, November 23, 2005

ISBTs in Delhi : traveling out of Delhi

There are many tourist locations around Delhi and you are often required to catch a bus for traveling out of Delhi. But here comes the dilemma -- should you take a private bus or a roadways bus (govt. buses)! Traveling by private bus should be avoided at all cost. Now, where do you go to catch a roadways bus as there are 3 ISBTs in Delhi which are located wide apart. Delhi is full of touts who are out there to exploit innocent tourists. We had all learned it the hard way by getting duped at least once. It starts with the autowalas. If you ask them to go to ISBT, they will quiz your knowledge by asking which ISBT. Local word used for ISBT is Bus Adda. If you can not answer that then they know that you a sitting duck and may take you to private operator. To avoid trouble, you need to tell specifically that I want to go say Kashmere Gate Bus Adda. There are many shops outside New Delhi Station, the so called Tourist Information Bureaus. They constitute the second line of touts. They book tickets for private buses and hotels. You will find cheaper and better hotels if you take the help of a man puled ricksaw. There is no published price of bus fares for private bus and so the price you pay depends on your knowledge of fare and bargaining power. So it is always better to go to ISBTs and catch a roadways bus that keeps running almost 20 hours. But you need to know which ISBT you should go.

During 1998-99, I was employed in Delhi with a private organisation where I had to travel extensively out of Delhi. Fortunately, around that time, the Transport Deptt. of Delhi had published a list of buses from diferent ISBTs in leading newspapers. I had preserved that piece of information which had always been very useful for me. As now I have my own webspace, I feel it will be nice to share it with you all.

ANAND VIHAR ISBT (VIVEKANANDA)
(Buses mostly to UP and East Uttaranchal areas)
Almora
Allahabad
Bulandshahar
Bareilly
Bageswar
Dharchula
Etawah
Farukhabad
Ghazipur
Gajraula
Hathras
Hamirpur
Haldwani
Jhansi
Kanpur
Kashipur
Kalagarh (also from Kashmere Gate ISBT)
Lucknow
Lohaghat
Mainpuri
Moradabad
Nainital
Nagina (also from Kashmere Gate ISBT)
Pithoragarh
Pilibhit
Ramnagar
Rudrapur
Ranikhet
Tanakpur
Varanasi

KASHMERE GATE ISBT (RANA PRATAP)
(Busses mostly to North Haryana, HP, Jammu, Punjab and West UP, west Uttaranchal areas)
Guhana
Sonepat
Panipat
Karnal
Nahan
Kurukshetra
Ambala
Chandigarh
Kalka
Hoshiarpur
Patiala
Bhatinda
Ludhiana
Jallandhar
Amritsar
Katra
Jammu
Moga
Shimla
Dharamsala
mandi
Kulu
Manali
Pilani
Rohtak
Jind
Sangrur
Bhiwandi
Hissar
Sirsa
Ganganagar
Meerut
Saharanpur
Muzzafarnagar
Rurki
Rishikesh
Dehradun
Haridwar
Kotdwar (via Meerut)
Dhampur (via Meerut)
Nagina (via Meerut)
Kalagarh (via Meerut)
And all other routes towards GT Karnal Road, Bahadurgarh Road and Saharanpur Road

SARAI KALE KHAN ISBT (near Ashram)
(Busses to Hrayana towards Faridabad side and Gurgaon side, MP)
Ghaziabad
Hapur
Gurgaon
Sohna
Rewari
Narnaul
Sikkar
Alwar
Kotputli
Jaipur
Ajmer
Jodhpur
Chittor
Bhilwara
Udaipur
Kota
Faridabad
Palwal
Ballabhgarh
Agra (also runs from Anand Vihar)
Aligarh
Gwalior
Mathura
Vrindavan
And all other routes towards Gurgaon and Mathura Road.

Dos and Don'ts:
Here is a list of Dos and Donots from that list. I had added a few.

1) If you can not find the place you are going, check a map. You will get a general direction based on the location and go to that ISBT. Even if you land in the wrong ISBT, do not worry as DTC runs city bus service between these ISBTs. These buses starts from inside the ISBTs.
2) For God's sake DO NOT EVER GET INTO PRIVATE BUSES. The advertisement by Transport Deptt of Delhi rightly says You May Not Reach Your Destination'. Believe me, it is 100% true. The private bus service is highly unorganised and so there is no control.
3) Do not fall for luxury buses or AC buses of private operators. Many agents moves around inside the ISBT, manily around ticket counters and gates looking for innocent looking victims. I can assure you that if you fall for them you are guaranteed a horrible experience you will never forget. We all had gone through it and is so awareing you. Further, I have not seen any AC private bus till now. Probably there is not any. But I have I have seen many people fighting for refund of extra AC charges. But these crookes will not return you money.

4) There is no standard fare of private bus. They charge you depending on your knowledge. But my experience is that roadways bus fare is much cheaper, e.g., the Dehradun - Delhi fare for good quality delux bus of any roadways was 170-80/- while that of khatara delux of private bus was 250/-.
4) Even autowalas may be packed. They may pretend giving you friendly advise to take you to good delux buses. They do it for commision and once they hand you over to touts they will vanish leaving you to suffer.
5) So cardinal principle is that always board a bus from inside the ISBTs. All types of buses are available -- from real khataras to Volvos. Quality of buses may not look good, but they will still make you reach your destination safely.

6) All long distance buses from Delhi leaves by 10:30 pm or maximum 11 pm. So, you should not expect to get buses after 10:30 pm.

Useful Links :

Here are some useful link in case you want to gather more information. The DTC (Delhi Transport Corporation) not only runs city bus service in Delhi, but also operates buses to almost all major tourist points to states around Delhi. Here is the link to DTC website . There is another very useful link to find local city bus routes within Delhi. Check this out DTC City Bus Route Finder . Want to know the auto and taxi fare in Delhi, then check this Auto and Taxi fare Calculator . To end, here is the link on the latest mode of commuting in Delhi, the metro rail Delhi Metro Rail .

Labels: Delhi, ISBT, Travel

posted by Rupankar Mahanta at 12:49 PM

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17 Comments:

At September 06, 2006 9:23 PM, Michika said...: Hi,

I found your blog very useful and super friendly to travelers like me.

I have a question.
- Do you know if there are retiring room or some sort in Kashmere Gate Bus Adda?
I will arrive at Delhi airport at 21:00 and then head for Rishikesh. I may be able to catch the 22:30 bus for Haridwar but in case I miss that last bus, I need to find accomodation near or in the bus terminal...

I would really appreciate if you could share your idea...

Thank you very much!

Michika
At September 12, 2006 10:57 AM, Rups said...: Hi Michika,

You should have left your e-mail for me to reply.

Anyway, the Kashmere Gate ISBT do not have such facilities. You can expect to get buses for Haridwar upto around 10:45 pm. But if you can noy make it by that time, it would be better to stay put in some hotel at Pahar Ganj, near New Delhi Railway station. Therefater try to catch the Shatabdi Express to Dehradun next morning from New Delhi station. It leaves at around 6 in the morning. I always prefer to travel by train. There are 4 different daily train between Delhi and Haridwar, one leaves at 6 am, another at 3:30 pm and one at 10:15 pm. Check it out at the railway site of www.indianrail.gov.in.

Good luck and I hope I am not too late in replying.
At September 28, 2006 1:14 PM, Malcom Chase said...: Dear Mr Rupankar Mahanta

It was interesting to find your blog about Delhi ISBT s through Google. I visited all three ISBTs in 2004, using auto-rickshaws.

My interest is buses and collecting tickets and taking photos of buses, especially State buses.

I am just writing an article on tickets I found In Calcutta and Guwahati in February ! when I saw your address was Guwahati!. I spent 10 days in Calcutta and Assam, with a day to Shillong and found it all very interesting. It is my fourth trip to India

I found buses of many States which I have not seen before

Incidentally i see you were in Uttaranchal. This is a State of which I have not got any tickets, as I did not find any in Delhi in early 2004. It may be different now as the State is more established.

Hoping to hear from you

This is my ofice address

Regards

malcolm Chase
London
At November 23, 2006 3:49 AM, Anonymous said...: Hi,
Very nice information! I am going to Delhi airport at 23 hrs. Can I go to Anand Vihar after that to get a Govt. bus to Bareilly? Its urgent as I have some work at Bareilly at 9 a.m.
At July 29, 2007 10:57 AM, Krishna Rao Musalkanti said...: Congrats on a very nice blog.

You info regarding taking bus's in Delhi was very useful.

Thanks once again.
At July 29, 2007 10:57 AM, Rups said...: Dear Mr Rao,

Thanks for the appreciation. I feel elated when someone find the
information useful and inform me. Few days back when I was checking
the links into my articles, I was surprised to find that even one
Japanese site has a link to this article on ISBT.

Regards.

Rupankar
At August 20, 2007 3:35 PM, Anonymous said...: Dear Rupankar,
Thanks for the useful tips. I was on a trip to Dehradun. and passed thru' delhi. for air travellers, I suggest they take a pre-paid cab to the ISBT. They can book the cab within delhi airport. The rates are standardised and the cabs are waiting outside. On reaching ISBT, a Uttranchal transport was right there and the rest of the journey was comfortable. You are very right about warning against pvt operators. give me some tips about going to himachal. are there buses from isbt.
rgds,
anurag
At March 03, 2008 8:35 PM, Anonymous said...: I found this blog very helpful. Thank you for being kind enough to share your experiences.
At March 31, 2008 7:40 PM, Anonymous said...: Hi, thanks for the info, but im not able to find out that for a bus to Jim Corbett, i should goto which ISBT??...can you guide me ?
At April 01, 2008 10:55 AM, Rups said...: Hi,

The nearest town for Corbett is Ramnagar for which you will get buses from Anand Vihar ISBT. You can buses to Moradabad and then take some local from there as well. THE CTR Ofcie where you need to collect entry passes is right infront of the bus stand at Ramnagar.
At April 20, 2008 12:36 PM, dhanesh said...: Hi

i want to know is there any AC bus service to rudrapur and whats the time. and from wher we can get the bus..

Thanks
Dhanesh Mewara
At June 11, 2008 1:25 PM, Rakesh Garg said...: Dear All,

My flight will arrived at airport around 10.00pm, i want tro go to sangrur by bus. could any one please tell me that what is the last time to sangrur from isbt(kashmere gate) waiting your reply

regards,
Rakesh
At June 11, 2010 12:12 AM, Anonymous said...: hi. ur info on ISBTis very useful. i would be travelling to delhi via flight and thereon to ISBT to catch bus for kotdwar.uttrakhand. i had following questions in my mind: 1. Best way and time to reach ISBT kashmere gate from delhi airport. 2. timing of last bus to kotdwar. kindly revert asap as i would be travelling in 2-3 days.
At June 11, 2010 7:59 PM, Anonymous said...: ur info on isbt is very useful. i would use some of those on my trip to delhi. i would be reaching delhi by flight and from thereon to isbt kashmere gate to catch bus for kotdwar, uttarakhand. however i have few questions in my mind as follows:

1. best way to reach kashmere gate isbt from airport.
2. time taken and the distance between airport and isbt.
3. last bus to kotdwar from isbt.

pls if any one can provide some answers to my questions above so that i can arrange accordingly. also pls revert asap since i would be travelling in 2-3 days.

thanking you in advance.
At June 12, 2010 9:45 AM, Rups said...: On the last info request:

DTC run a bus service from airport to the Kashmere Gate ISBT. U need to ask there to find where it starts. Or hire a cab from AP. Alternatively can look to reach the nearest metro at Dwarka and then change train at CP (Rajiv Chowk).

Time will be at least an hour. But it depends on the time of travel.

The last bus leaves at around 10:30-45.
At January 29, 2013 3:12 PM, stilbonmaria said...: delhi to haridwar bus online booking

Thanks for taking the time to discuss that, I really feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic.
At May 17, 2013 8:00 PM, Ankit Agarwal said...: hi

Can u please inform me from were will i get the bus to neemkathana, rajasthan

I am in delhi rite now and from which depot will the bus leave