Visiting tourist and picnic spots in and around the city will be much easier now. As a New Year gift to the citizens, the Ranchi Municipal Corporation rolled out three new tourist buses on Sunday for major picnic spots around the city.

Additional Municipal Commissioner of RMC, Girija Shankar Prasad said, “The buses will go to Panchghagh, Bio Diversity Park and Birsa Jaivik Udyan. These buses are apt for big families or a group of office workers or friends planning to visit one of these places.”

Prasad informed that the first trip on all the three buses was booked by families and friends who wanted to visit these picnic spots. “The buses will take them to the spot and bring them back in the evening,” he said.

The buses can be booked by contacting RMC office. On Monday, two more buses will be rolled out for a circular trip of the city. “These two buses will take the people on a trip to all the tourist spots inside Ranchi including Tagore Hill, Jagganathpur Temple and others,” said Prasad.

While initially the buses will ply only in the month of January, the plan is to make it a regular feature depending on the bookings RMC gets.

“We are ready to provide more buses based on the demand. RMC has 26 extra buses which can be used for the purpose of tourism,” AMC said.

This apart, the buses will also be available for booking for group bookings for visiting places in and around the city. “People can contact us if they need a bus to attend a wedding or some other function in or around Ranchi. They will be provided a bus on a per day payment basis,” Prasad said.

The new system is being appreciated by many citizens. Anish Gupta, a teacher said, “We were planning to go on a group picnic in the first week of January with around 20 people.

However, mode of commutation was a problem as arranging so many cars for the trip would be very expensive. Now that RMC is providing the buses, we can all plan a trip with our families and enjoy the picnic at a much lower cost.”