Unlike its counterparts in Thane and Navi Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking is all prepared to extend its bus services beyond the city and suburban limits, and this time with brand new buses.
After the state government relaxed boundary restrictions between civic corporations, BEST has chalked out a plan to operate its buses up to and into Thane, Mira-Bhayander, and Navi Mumbai.
“After several deliberations I convinced the Centre to provide funding for the procurement of buses as it is one of the crucial projects in the city,” said Uttam Khobragade, BEST general manager, adding, “The Centre has agreed and under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), we will receive funding from both the Centre and the state.”
Khobragade said that this is the first time that the government is funding the project of removing restrictions on bus movements.
Under the scheme, 700 buses have been approved of 1,000 proposed by BEST to be run on the city roads. “Of these, 140 will be low-floor fully air-conditioned buses. We plan to put these on the new routes to Thane, Mira-Bhayander, and Navi Mumbai,” said Khobragade.
The tender for procuring the buses will be floated by March 31 and by June, the buses will be on the roads. When asked whether all the new buses will be pressed into service for the commuters from the neighbourhood areas, Khobragade said, “Most of the buses will be run on these routes.”
It is still not clear whether specific undertakings will have a monopoly on certain routes of whether routes will be common for the buses of BEST, the Thane Municipal Transport (TMT) and the Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT).
Khobragade said there will be special routes (for single undertakings) but some could be common with either or all the transport undertakings. “Commuters will have the option of choosing whether they want to travel on BEST bus or buses operated by other undertakings,” he said.
On February 7, the newly-formed Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Transport Authority (MMRTA) had decided to relax the geographical limitations on the various transport undertakings, and allow the different undertakings to ply beyond their respective jurisdictions.
