Owing to the rise in COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra, the state government has issued revised guidelines along with a lockdown in the state to curb the spread of virus. Mumbai being one of the major hotspots, there have been various guidelines issued for the public transportaion in the city. Although the services of the public transportaion have not been shut down completely, the new norms have made it a bit difficult for the commuters. BEST is one of the major lifeline of the city after Mumbai local train.
Soon after the implication of the rules, BEST officials have started following the norms. In Andheri, which is one of the crowded areas in the city, commuters were seen crowding at a bus stop. While many of them got into the bus, the bus conductor, driver deboarded all the standing passangers and allowed only the seating passangers to continue with their journey. Take a look
As per the revised guidelines, people can only sit in buses, both BEST and private ones. New rules were put in place at various bus depots which stated; buses should be operated with seating capacity only and no standees will be allowed.
Meanwhile on April 5, there seemed confusion amongst BEST Undertaking. While the authorities claimed that the new guideline was implementable from Monday evening; the depot managers started taking action from Monday morning itself. The buses were running full though it didn't seem overcrowded. At some locations, there were staff standing and instructing passengers, some buses weren’t halting at bus stops leading to crowds.
