Reader Feedback: Hyderarabad to Mangalore - Kesineni Travels

Your name: Deepak
Route: Hyderabad - Mangalore
Operator name: Kesineni Travels
Bus brand: Volvo 9400 6x2 B9R
Month of travel: June 2010
Short experience: Enjoyable & decent service

Rating:
· Bus Interiors: 4.75/5;
· Bus Exteriors: 4.5/5;
· Crew Service Courtesy: 4.75/5;
· Drive experience: 4.5/5;
· In-bus Entertainment: 4/5;



I had booked on this service from ‘Hyderabad (pick-up Kondapur, near Hitec city)’ to ‘Manipal –Bye-pass’. The pick-up time was scheduled to be 5:30 PM. Kesineni is covering pick-ups pretty well in South-West region of Hyderabad.

The B9R bus starts from Garage @ Nizampet road and picks up from Miyapur, Kondapur and last stop Mehedipatnam. There are van pick-ups from Erragadda, Ameerpet, Punjagutta. This is well handled in the website as they have online booking.

This 6X2; 9400 (B9R) has 49 seats. Last seats are normal seating. Since it is a semisleeper, the leg-space is pretty good.

Apart from Service to Mangalore from Hyderabad, Kesineni has B9R service to Goa, Coimbatore, Mumbai & Surat (via Mumbai, Valsad). Coimbatore & Mangalore service start at the same time.

At Kondapur the first service came was to Coimbatore at sharp 5:30 PM, followed by Mangalore at 5:45 PM. This lag was to handle the parking & boarding of Coimbatore bus at Mehedipatnam.

The bus had maroon color exteriors and blue interiors (regn: AP16TU6800), it appears that all their B9R have regn number ending with 00). The bus left Mehedipatnam at 6:35 PM to stop for dinner at Jadcherla by 7:45 PM. After dinner break at Jadcherla, with driver change the bus started around 8:15 PM on the route to Raichur-Koppal-Gadag-Hubli-Ankola-Kumta-Bhatkal-Kundapura-Udupi-Mangalore. The bus crossed Raichur around 10:20 PM and around 12:45 AM bus had stopped for loo and I was surprised to see then KSRTC B7R passing by (that was 1705HYDMNG service). The bus reached Hubli at 2:45 AM trailing behind the KSRTC B7R. KSRTC B7R entered the Hubli old bus stand for drop and this bus had advantage and started before B7R, after crossing Hubli at the outskirts this bus stopped around 3:00 AM for driver change and tea. After this the bus was speeding inspite of heavy down pour on NH17, when I opened my eyes the bus was crossing the Sharavathi Bridge and by 6:50 AM was at Bhatkal. He stopped for ladies to use the Ladies toilet at Hotel Vaibhav, then I saw 2 KSRTC B7R’s (1705HYDMNG & 1300MUMMNG) going towards Mangalore. Do not know when KESINENI had overtook them. The only hitch point was 12 passengers were picked from Bhatkal to Mangalore (assuming) and started towards Mangalore. Due to Heavy rains (Kundapura had experienced 27cm of rain in 24 hours) there were trees uprooted & encroached exactly infront of KSRTC bus stands. So this bus had to wait for close to 90 mins, till it was cleared. While KSRTC bus entered the Kundapura KSRTC bus stand and steered off ahead.

This bus left after the path was cleared and reached Udupi at 10:00 AM, Kesineni’s context Udupi Bus stand is Manipal Bye-pass as I expected. However while returning back from Mangalore it also enters Manipal (TC) for pick-up.

Had there been no block at Kundapura then it would have reached Udupi by 8:30 AM. A decent 15 hour journey covering 850 kms, even I cannot achieve this timing if I prefer to drive down by car.

This service is good competitor for KSRTC B7R & may propel KSRTC to upgrade to B9R.

The only drawback is that the blankets have no white linen as in KSRTC service.

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