Chennai to Trivandrum-Parveen Travels Benz Bus

Last weekend for a official visit need to travel Trivandrum from Chennai and looking for options come across the availability of New Mercedes Benz Multi axle introduced by Parveen Travels. Without a second thought opted for it to experience the Benz comfort even though the fare is little bit high comparing with others (Chennai to Trivandrum=Rs.1050/-)

Bus starts from Koyambedu at 8:00 pm and decided to board in at Perungalathur which is in the outskirts of Chennai. Crossing the scheduled time bus reached at 8:50 pm instead of 8:30 and on seeing the exterior appearance itself it won my hearts.

Length of the bus is almost equal to Volvo rear axle and for my thought it is bit lengthier than the Volvo (My assumption)

Here are the Technical Details:

Mercedes chassis O 500 RSD 2436

Powered by the Euro III engine

Rear engines with 6 vertical cylinders

Turbo charged and intercooled engine deliver 1200 Nm torque at a low rpm of 1400-1600

Seating Capacity of 48

Smart suspension with lifting mechanism allows the chauffer to increase the height of the bus

Interior of this bus is designed as same as passenger aircraft and truly on comparison it is much better than the Indian planes. With a 2+2 semi sleeper this bus has modern amenities like personalized speakers (Pioneer Make), lights and AC controls. For better viewing they have placed two LCD screens one in the front and another in the middle of the vehicle. Designer Curtains placed in the windows is a feather in the beauty of this bus

All passengers on Board are welcomed with a kitbag containing Maa mango drink, Water bottle, Wet tissue and an orange flavored biscuit packet, apart from shawl (safeguard from the A/C) and a small pillow.

Bus leaves exactly at 9:10 pm and stops for dinner at a motel before Tindivanam. Matching the class of bus the restaurant is also a good one (Only Omni buses of KPN, Parveen stops here) crowd is not that much and hence maintained very neat.

After dinner it touches NH45 again to mingle in the crowd of buses heading towards southern part of Tamilnadu. It’s one of the busiest 8 lane road and till trichy during night time it’s over crowded. Previously travelled in Volvo rear axle from Bangalore to Chennai by KPN and comparing with it the speed, Luxury this Benz is much better. Even though the bus speeds at 90 to 100 kmph comfort inside in the bus is high and thanks for the suspension and fine tuned engine. While overtaking or during applying brakes only we used to hear a huzz voice in a small manner.

A/C is very good, since it’s a new vehicle and its cooling capacity forced all to use the shawl provided by them. After the dinner break the vehicle stopped only before Madurai at 3:00 am and distance of nearly 450 kms, from Chennai to Madurai was crossed in a time span of 6+ hours which is the fasted travelled by me in this route so far. Unlike others they haven't taken the route of Madurai by pass and crossed Madurai by taking the city roads itself (Early morning roads are free and avoided toll because of this).

Because of travel fond baring my sleep I enjoyed watching vehicles and almost all private and govt vehicles are being overtaken by this Benz power. Not having an opportunity to monitor the speedometer but predict it touches a top speed of 110 kmph in the NH stretch.

Crossing Madurai it reached Tirunulveli at 5:15 am and dropping off few passengers headed towards Nagerkovil. Almost the entire stretch of NH road work was finished and only at few places we have seen the diversion board. Volvo and Benz powered vehicles are making use of this and travel time have been reduced to a manner where we haven't imagined in the past.

Unlike the Leyland and Tata vehicles much care and facilities given to the driver console and one notable among them is a rear view camera. Taking into account the length of the vehicle, rear camera is available and for this a monitor is placed in the driver console. Apart from this so many buttons are there and resembles an interior inside a pilot cabin.

In a time span of one hour reached Nagerkovil at 6:15 am (78 kms in 60 mnts) and there the bus halted for a break of nearly 20 mnts to unload the parcels placed in the lower deck. Able to see storage space which is splitted into two parts and it can accommodate almost half a volume of parcel lorry.

After this extended break in the early hours, last leg of journey from Nagerkovil to Trivandrum begins and really it will be the toughest one as the road between these two cities won't be in the standards of NH even though it was called like it. Resembling the busy roads of Chennai, from Nagerkovil to Trivandrum this 2 lane road with no medians act as a speed barrier. No Benz or Volvo can stretch themselves and forced to follow Leyland and Tata's silently.

Reached Trivandrum junction at 7:45 am, covering an overall distance of 725 kms and my first experience with Benz is remembered for a long time.