Mumbai: BEST to resume buses today for office-goers

Only one passenger will be allowed on each seat and five others will be allowed to stand. (Representational)

About 2,500 buses of Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking will start operation across the city and suburbs from Monday to provide connectivity for office-goers as Mumbai kickstarts its ‘Mission Begin Again’. These buses will ply on 81 routes to fill in the vacuum left by suburban trains.

Of the 81 routes, there will be at least five corridor routes with one each from Virar, Nalasopara, Badlapur, Kalyan and Panvel connecting Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to the city.

Only one passenger will be allowed on each seat and five others will be allowed to stand.

Until now, BEST has been running around 1,800 buses only for essential workers since March 23, when the nationwide lockdown had come into force. Despite a fleet strength of about 3,500 buses, including those owned by the undertaking and procured through wet leasing, only about 2,500 will be put to use to gauge the initial demand. “Not all routes are required, as only 10 per cent staffers in private offices and 15 per cent in government offices are allowed,” said a BEST official.

Over the next one week, if there is demand, more buses and additional routes will be introduced.

Public Relation Officer for BEST, Manoj Varade, said: “We would urge only those with valid reasons to step out and take a bus. Residents can also reach out to us on our helpline number if there is an additional requirement of buses.”

Though BEST has maintained that only those with an office identity card will be allowed to board its buses, officials said it will be difficult to implement. Even as essential workers were allowed to board buses showing their passes or ID cards during the lockdown, officials feel with ‘Mission Begin Again’, the same system will be difficult to enforce.

“If a conductor begins to check ID cards of every passenger, the buses will be delayed. Moreover, not everyone heading to work has an ID,” said an official.

BEST will be charging its regular fares and daily passes will also be available on these routes. Apart from BEST, Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) will add another 250 buses to its earlier strength of 400 buses to ferry essential workers and officer-goers.

While BEST operations veers towards normality, taxi and rickshaw drivers who have been allowed to operate, albeit only for essential services, have been complaining about the police impounding their vehicles.

On Sunday, traffic police continued to take action against auto and taxi drivers with several of their vehicles being impounded for plying on the city streets. Around five taxi drivers were stopped by Vakola division of the traffic police and their vehicles were impounded.

Mumbai Taximens Union leader, A L Quardros, said, “Despite the government issuing orders for taxis to ply, the traffic police is taking action citing violation of lockdown rules. They say that they are not aware of any revised rules allowing taxis to ply. We’ll be writing to the traffic department to sensitise their staff.”

Shashank Rao, union leader for auto drivers, claimed that both the transport and traffic department were passing the buck. “When we approached the transport department, we were asked to speak to the traffic department, while the auto drivers are suffering on the ground.”

Rao said he will also be writing to the traffic department about the action being taken against auto drivers who have no way to ascertain if a passenger is out for essential work or not.

When contacted, Transport Commissioner Shekar Channe maintained that both auto and taxi drivers were permitted to ferry essential workers in MMR.