"Tempo traveller" is the everyday name in India for any van that carries a group, after the Traveller built by the company that was called Bajaj Tempo until 2005 and is Force Motors today. The Force Urbania is that company's newer van, on sale since November 2022. Ask for an Urbania and you get a van built on a different platform, with the engine shut off from the passengers and room to stand up inside. Ours is laid out for 16 passengers, each with a pushback seat and a charging point.
Where the name comes from
The company behind both vans began by building vehicles under licence from Tempo, a German maker, and traded as Bajaj Tempo until it renamed itself Force Motors in 2005. Its Traveller van carried the Tempo name for long enough that "tempo traveller" stopped meaning one model and came to mean any van of that size, whoever built it.
So when an operator offers a "tempo traveller", the useful question is which van it is: a Force Traveller, a Force Urbania, or another make, and how many seats it really has.
What Force did differently with the Urbania
Force first showed the Urbania at the Auto Expo in 2020 and announced its prices in November 2022. Force describes it as India's first fully ground-up, modular monocoque panel van platform, which in plain terms means the body is one load-bearing steel shell designed for this van rather than a body adapted from another vehicle.
- The engine stays out of the cabin. The Urbania has a semi-forward layout with a single-panel firewall between the engine and the passengers, which Force says keeps engine noise and dust out of the cabin.
- Stand-up height. Passengers can walk to a seat at the back without crouching, which matters when sixteen people board with day bags.
- Ride and safety. Force lists independent front suspension, and dual airbags with a collapsible steering column for the driver and the passenger beside the driver.
- The engine. A 2.6-litre turbo diesel.
Three lengths, and why the seat count is worth asking
Force builds the Urbania in three wheelbases — 3,350 mm, 3,615 mm and 4,400 mm — and lists them for 10, 13 and 17 passengers, not counting the driver. Operators then fit their own seat plans, so two vans both called "Urbania" can seat a different number of people.
Ours is laid out for 16 passengers, one of them in the front beside the driver. The seat plan drawn on our Delhi page is this van's own. A child under two can sit on a parent's lap; everybody else needs a seat of their own, and that is the number to give when you ask.
What the difference feels like on a long day
On a two-hour transfer any clean van with working AC will do. The Urbania earns its place on the long runs out of Delhi — up to the hills, or to Agra and back in a day — where a quieter cabin, a seat that leans back and a charger at every seat are what decide whether the group arrives tired or not.
Five questions to ask before you book any 16-seater
- Which make and model is the van, and is the one in the photograph the one that comes?
- How many passenger seats does it have, and is one of them beside the driver?
- Does the AC reach the back rows?
- Does it carry an All-India Tourist Permit, if the trip leaves Delhi's state?
- What does the fare include — tolls, parking, the driver's allowance, night driving — and what is extra?