Nearly 150 air-conditioned electric buses that Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) introduced recently are not available on NMMT’s bus tracker mobile application. While the civic transport wing assures to resolve the technical glitches soon, commuters have been facing a lot of difficulties as they are clueless about the movement of buses in a few routes.
The mobile application works on the integrated transport management system (ITMS) and helps commuters check the real-time location of the buses, and also avail information on nearby bus stops, bus routes among others. The mobile app has also brought laurels to the civic transport wing as it received awards from the central government for making commuting hassle-free.
However, hassle-free commuting has become a little challenging for many commuters. As many commuters are not fully vaccinated, and fully dependent on buses, especially NMMT as they cannot board the suburban trains. NMMT buses are also popular among commuters as it has services to almost every part of the MMR.
Malini Patil, a resident of Ulwe, says that she commutes to Nerul to her workplace every day. She uses the mobile app to check the bus' availability before leaving home. However, with the introduction of electric buses, she is now clueless. “The commuting in new electric air-conditioned electric buses of NMMT has a completely new experience as we travel the same distance in AC buses at a normal fare. However, these buses are not available on the mobile which makes commuting a little difficult as we do not know the availability of the next bus,” said Patil.
NMMC has introduced these electric buses over short distances to ensure that these buses return to the depot for recharging before it stops in the midway due to battery consumptions.
Yogesh Kaduskar, General Manager of NMMT, says that there is a technical glitch in the software and due to which some buses are not available on the app. “We are working on it and we will resolve the problem earliest,” said Kaduskar.
