“There has been a great response from the commuters. The bookings for the AC as well as Non- AC coaches are almost over. Because of the convenient timings, the carnival has become quite popular amongst the weekend travellers,” said Shriniwas Mudgerikar, chief spokesperson, Central Railway (CR). The CR’s new CST-Madgoan (Goa) train which commenced from February 20, would take passengers to Goa in less than nine hours. Similarly, the trains to Goa run by the Konkan Railway (KR) also take almost the same duration to reach Goa.

“The response to Goa carnival is good. All my buses leaving for Goa in next two days are full despite 20 per cent fare hike,” said Harsh Kotak, vice president of the Maharashtra Rajya truck, tempo, tanker, bus vahatuk Sangh and also the owner of Modern Travels that has regular services to Goa.

The carnival is a four-day festival filled with fun, music and dance. According to Deepak Narvekar, the spokesperson for the Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC), the festival is officially organised on February 21 in Panaji. It will be organised in Madgaon and Vasco-da-Gama in the subsequent days and Mapusa on the last day.

“People not only from India, but also from the other countries participate in the carnival. But majorly tourists from from the neighbouring states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and cities like Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore come to participate in the event,” said a GTDC official associated with the carnival.

The Indian Rail Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has planned a special package travel for the festival. “But we have not yet received the expected response. We feel that recession could be one of the reasons for this,” said R D Sharma, IRCTC’s group general manager (west zone). Considering the rush for the festival, the corporation had planned special train services from Mumbai, Ahemdabad, Surat and Vododara.