Bus service from Delhi to Leh reopens, one-way ticket Rs 1,365

Fancy a summer vacation in Leh and have the stomach for a non-stop 33-hour bus journey through mountain passes? You are in luck.

The Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) on Monday restarted its summer bus service from New Delhi to Leh in Jammu and Kashmir, an official told new agency IANS.

“We started plying the daily to and fro bus service between Delhi-Leh via Manali from Monday,” the official said. A one-way ticket costs Rs 1,365.

The arduous 1,050km non-stop journey from Delhi to Leh in Ladakh division takes 33 hours. The route, which winds through four mountain passes, remains snowbound from October to May or June.

A luxury bus service linking tourist town of Manali in Himachal Pradesh with Leh will restart July 1, more than six months after it was discontinued in the winter, Vijay Sharma, the general manager of the Himachal Pradesh tourism development corporation, said.

The 35-seater bus will leave Manali at 11am every alternate day and will arrive in Leh the next evening after covering 475 km.

The bus will make an overnight halt at Keylong in Lahaul-Spiti district to leave at 4am the next morning. One-way fare of Rs 2,700 includes a night’s stay at Keylong, dinner and breakfast.

A special camping site has been developed at Keylong for the night halt. The bus crosses four mountain passes in Himachal and Jammu and Kashmir -- Rohtang Pass (13,050 ft), Baralacha Pass (16,020 ft), Lachungla Pass (16,620 ft) and Tanglangla Pass (17,480 ft).

Backpackers flock Manali from August to September and most of the travellers prefer to drive down the Manali-Leh highway to get to Ladakh.