The ridership in the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking buses has increased by 25 per cent in the last one week.
According to data shared by BEST spokesperson, Manoj Varade, the transport undertaking ferried average 5 lakh passengers during the week of June 15-20, meanwhile, on the week of June 22-27 the red buses have ferried an average of 8 lakh passengers.
The BEST has a fleet of 3,400 buses and is pressing nearly 2800 buses on weekdays.
Earlier, BEST was unable to press more buses because there was a shortage of manpower, as more than 1000 staffers had refrained from reporting to duty eversince the lockdown was imposed in March. But after the BEST administration sent chargesheets to its employees, many of them returned to duty thus filling the gap of manpower.
The BEST had already discontinued its special buses for the essential service providers following which, it has been pressing more number of buses from its fleet daily into daily service.
"There has been an increase in passengers because every day we are adding more buses into service from our fleets. This in turn has improved the frequency of the buses" said Varade.
