The growing popularity of online bus ticketing web sites like Redbus.in, Tickevala.com, Yatra.com, Theluxurybuses.com, Abhibus.com, Indiabusticket.com and Checkouttrip.com is spurring online travel company Makemytrip.com to join the crowd.

Makemytrip.com’s Chief Marketing Officer Sachin Bhatia told The Economic Times:

The online bus-ticketing business is likely to witness robust growth in the coming years. We are aggressively planning to foray into this sector and are looking for tie-ups with some of the budding online bus-ticketing portals.

Although air travel is growing in popularity with the middle class, road networks in India are said to carry about 85% of the country’s passenger traffic.

Buses have a reach into the hinterlands of India that trains and planes just cannot match.

Makemytrip.com, which claims to be India’s largest e-commerce company, started off with air ticket booking for NRIs and then branched off into hotel reservations, car bookings, budget travel packages and holidays in India.