Mumbai: BEST kicks off WRI India's flagship 'Bus Karo' program; aims to help create effective public bus transport system

Mumbai: BEST kicks off WRI India's flagship 'Bus Karo' program; aims to help create effective public bus transport system

Bus Karo presents opportunity for officials to share best practices, success stories and challenges related to the development and implementation of bus services in their respective states. This will help shaping a bus transport system which is made out of borrowed but effective practices.

Kamal MishraUpdated: Wednesday, March 15, 2023, 12:54 PM IST
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Mumbai: BEST kicks off WRI India's flagship 'Bus Karo' program; aims to help create effective public bus transport system | Surced Photo

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking on Wednesday launched 'Bus Karo 2023', the flagship program of the World Resources Institute India (WRI India). with support from the Delhi Transport Department and Association of State Road Transport Undertakings (ASRTU).

Bus Karo aims to bring together officials from State and Municipal Transport Undertakings across India, who are responsible for the planning, operations and deployment of buses including fleet management, technology implementation, and business models.

Capacity building workshop held in Mumbai

The first session under Bus Karo was a two-day Capacity Building Workshop that focused on, Electric bus planning and scheduling, Public-private partnerships (PPP) in contracting in urban bus services, Intelligent Transport Management Systems (TMS)-Monitoring, Evaluation and Information Emerging technologies in ticketing and fare collection systems, Risk mitigation approaches for financing public bus services.

Program will help create effective system

Under the program, series of roundtables--Leaders' Exchange for Sustainable Mobility (LESM) is being launched on Wednesday, March 15, which aims to foster peer-to-peer learning and knowledge exchange between Heads of public bus agencies in India to accelerate the adoption of buses as sustainable transportation solutions.

The platform will give an opportunity for officials to share best practices, success stories and challenges related to the development and implementation of bus services in their respective states. This will help shaping an effective system which is made out of borrowed but effective practices.

Officials say public transport, especially buses, need transformation and Bus Karo helps realise it

Lokesh Chandra IAS, General Manager, BEST Undertaking said, "India's urban population is expected to reach 540 million by 2025 and 1.3 lakh additional buses would be required to cater to this growth. 'Bus Karo 2023' offers a unique knowledge exchange opportunity between public bus agencies to plan efficient, reliable, sustainable, and seamless mobility services. At BEST, we currently operate 426 electric buses and aim to increase the e-bus fleet size to 7,000 by the end of 2023 and 10,000 by 2027. The Bus Karo platform would help explore evidence-based innovative solutions to streamline operations."

Madhav Pai, Interim CEO, WRI India, said, "There is a clear need to bring about system level reforms in the public bus eco-system. This becomes crucial as we expect to on-board 50,000 e-buses by 2030 through the National Electric Bus Program. The Bus Karo program is bringing together bus agencies to achieve this vision through evidence-based research and peer-to-peer exchange."

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