Mumbai: Citizens face hardship due to less BEST buses on roads

Mumbai: Citizens face hardship due to less BEST buses on roads

"BEST has already deployed 297 buses on the routes which were impacted by withdrawal of 400 CNG buses," said a senior official of BEST

Kamal MishraUpdated: Thursday, February 23, 2023, 09:53 PM IST
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Mumbai: Hundreds of Mumbaikars face hardship on Thursday due less buses operated by BEST. 

However, BEST shifted 291 buses from the other depot to the affected bus depots. Long queues of passengers were seen especially during morning rush hours at several bus stops of the Dharavi, Santacruz, Jogeshwari and Pratiksha Nagar bus depot.

After repeated fire incidents the BEST Undertaking  withdrew 400 CNG buses from the service on Wednesday. These buses were deployed in Dharavi Santacruz, Jogeshwari and Pratiksha Nagar bus depot.

Number of buses operated by BEST down

Due to this, the number of buses operated by BEST came down at around 3200. Earlier around 3600 were daily operated by BEST.

"Due to less buses I was forced to wait in a queue for around 15 minutes at Dharavi on Thursday, " said Mangesh Prajapati, a resident of Jogeshwari. Similarly Rajesh Shinde of Santacruz said, " Generally I am able to get the bus within 10 minutes but on Thursday frequency was seema less, hence forced to wait up to 20 minutes.

However, BEST officials said, keeping in mind the passengers' convenience nearly 300 buses of comparatively less crowded routes already shifted to affected routes.

"BEST has already deployed 297 buses on the routes which were impacted by withdrawal of 400 CNG buses," said a senior official of BEST.

Safety standards and norms

Asked about the re-introduction of the 400 CNG buses, which were withdrawn from the service, BEST official said,  "A team of TATA motors engineering arrived from Lucknow and is re-examining all these buses for compliance of safety standards and safety norms. Once they complete examination of safety parameters and give necessary clearance and written commitment and assurance of safety norms compliance,these buses will be put to service".

"This exercise is likely to be completed in the next 6-7 days . Safety of commuters is of paramount importance for BEST, no compromise can be made on this count . We are trying our best to minimise the inconvenience however inconvenience caused to the commuters is regretted" he said.

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