New buses to ease commuter woes, NOT TRAFFIC

Despite 1,000 New BEST Buses, Faster Commute Still A Distant Dream

 

Mumbai: First, the good news. The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) will get 1,000 new buses by March 31 making commuting in the city much more comfortable. The bad news is that this doesn’t necessarily mean faster travel as the Bus Rapid Transit System is still in the limbo and traffic snarls in the city only get fiercer.
    Of the 1,000 buses it will get under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), BEST has started getting 10-15 new conventional buses every day of which some have already replaced old buses. There are 4,118 buses as of now running on 435 routes.
    Of the 1,000 new buses, 550 will be conventional ones (for Rs 18 lakh each), 250 midi-buses (for Rs 15 lakh) while 200 will be air-conditioned (at a cost of Rs 70 lakh each). The buses were initially scheduled to be introduced into the city by December 2009. “As 15,000 buses all over India were being added under the JNNURM, the deadline has been pushed back,” said BEST chairman Dilip Patel.
    The undertaking will use the midi-buses to decongest railway station areas. “New routes within a 5-km radius of stations on both the Central and Western lines are being worked out and will start by March. This we hope will decongest station areas and reduce traffic,” Patel told TOI.
    Patel said that the main aim of the undertaking was to give commuters a more comfortable ride. “We plan to increase the frequency on routes where commuter load is higher. But even as we increase the number of services, speed on the road decreases every year,” said Patel. In 2009 the speed of buses in the city averaged at 9.8 kmph.
    Patel said the BRTS, modelled on Ahmedabad, would help decongest the city. “Four cars occupy the same road space as a single bus and carry fewer people,” he said.
    The undertaking also plans to start new bus routes from the Mulund checkpost to Dahisar and Mulund station to Bhiwandi. “Every few months, three to four routes are surveyed. We get a lot of feedback from depot managers.Some old routes are then either closed, or new ones are opened or some diversions are introduced. Commuters can also send their feedback to our toll-free number,” said Patel.
    The undertaking will next revise its route by January 31. In 2009, 52 new routes were added while eight were cancelled. Incidentally, there have been around 6 lakh more BEST commuters between 2007-08 and 2008-09.
    But all routes are not raking in the moolah. For instance, the Kinglong buses do good business only during peak hours.
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Number of routes: 435 Routes introduced in 2009: 52 Routes cancelled in 2009: 8 Passengers in 2006-07: 43 lakh odd per day 2007-08: 44 lakh plus per day 2008-09: 50 odd persons per day
EXISTING FLEET Total: 4,118 Single deckers: 3,571 (including 1,489 CNG & 31 ultralow floor non-CNG buses) Double-deckers: 122 AC buses: 187 (including 180 Kinglong buses) Midi-buses: 238 (of which 175 are CNG)