The ridership of city bus service — Gurugaman — run by Gurugram Metropolitan City Bus Limited has steadily gone up by 30% since the buses started running on full capacity from August 15.
During the week beginning after August 15, 20,309 passengers travelled on Gurugaman buses till August 17. Similarly, the passenger count was 18,733 the next day. However, passenger mobility was affected on August 19 and 20 due to rain. On August 21, passenger count rebounded with 19,638 passengers travelling on the six routes now operational. The number further increased to 20, 684 for Monday.
The routes which are witnessing more passengers are Route 212: Basai Chowk to Basai (Mudrika), Route 134D: Iffco Chowk to IMT Manesar and Route 218: Gurugram Bus Stand to Sohna.
In the first fortnight of this month, 45, 430 passengers travelled on route 134D buses. On Route 212, during in this period, 45,723 passengers had travelled.
On Route 218, the number of passengers who had travelled was 36,068 for this period. With 50 % seating capacity, Gurugaman saw 15,880 passengers travelling on August 14, 2020. However, the number of passengers increased to more than 20,000 on the first weekday on a single day after the buses were allowed to run on full capacity.
GMCBL spokesperson Vanita Akhaury said the well-being of the passengers was the top priority for the company and all Standard Operating Procedures were being strictly adhered to. “The buses are clean, sanitised regularly, and foot-operated sanitiser is being provided at the entrance gates to facilitate the passengers in maintaining safe hygiene. Separate entry and exit gates and entry of passengers with masks and temperature reading further ensure safe journeys” said Ms. Akhaury.
Despite the increase in ridership, the number of passengers availing of the city bus service has gone down considerably compared to pre-COVID times primarily because fewer routes are operational. In March, the total passenger count for the month was 16,04,869, whereas it was only 3,37,178 for July.
Ms. Akhaury said a survey was being conducted to study the feasibility for running buses on the remaining routes as well.