The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking will operate special buses at night that shall start from 12 midnight to 5am covering the city, eastern and western suburbs. Starting March 7, there will be at least 6 different bus routes on which these shall ply apart from the ones which are ending their services.
According to BEST officials, these buses will cater to those who work in night shifts and have late work hours. These buses shall cater to sectors like hospitality and hotels, restaurants, ward boys and nurses working at hospitals and nursing homes, call centers and airports; which has resumed in a full-fledged manner whether or not they used to be in essential category or not.
“As most of the sectors have resumed at 100 percent, there are certain categories of people who work late at night or have to reach quite early in the morning. Considering this, we have started these 6 bus routes that will have a frequency of one hour. Depending on the feedback that we receive, shall we decide whether to add more routes and where,” said a BEST official.
The six different bus routes encompassing the island city and suburbs will start from Electric House, Mahim bus depot, Rani Laxmibai Chowk (Sion) and Backbay depot all the way till Mahim, Poisar, Sion, Mulund and Borivali via Mumbai Airport (see box). BEST Undertaking will be operating non-AC buses during these 5-hours.
There will be no hike in bus fares and it shall continue to be the same as charged in the regular hours. People will also be able to hail the bus mid-way even when there is no bus stop around under the ‘haath dhakwa bus thambwa’ scheme.
