Taxis can also be booked from hotels but they are more expensive. Travel by the local buses is an experience by itself. Often crowded, a bus journey even within a place could be an interesting experience. Big towns have local bus services that is regular, but smaller places could leave one waiting for long hours. Travelling in DTC buses could include a bit of jostling and an isolated pinch for the woman traveller when it is the peak hour.
Pickpockets are to be watched out for in Calcutta and Mumbai.
By far a very cheap and effective way to get around, buses are useful, provided one knows where exactly to go as well as the bus that goes there. Punctuality is, however, not their hallmark. Tramway and Metro Local Trains Calcutta is the only place that prides itself of electrically operated systems of transport. The Calcutta Tramways Company was incorporated in England in the late nineteenth century and is therefore the elder cousin of the Metro which came up in the eighties. Both these are very cheap and are immensely used to get around within the city.