AC buses mooted from home to work place

New buses will pick up passengers and drive them to office areas during peak hours

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Mumbai: The Maharashtra government plans to introduce point-to-point BEST airconditioned buses to connect the business districts with residential hubs so that Mumbaikars are dissuaded from using their own cars and take to comfortable public transport.

A network of dedicated bus services will connect the various residential complexes of the city to Nariman Point, World Trade Centre, South Mumbai, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Navi Mumbai and other important work centres. Under this plan, the AC buses will pick up passengers and drive them to their office areas during peak hours — either stopping at a few initial pick-up points or without stopping anywhere on the route, like the fast suburban trains. Currently, the BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking) runs 210 AC buses on 28 routes which are not direct and stop at various points to pick passengers.

The BEST AC buses will be of quality design and will provide add-on features like coat hangers, laptop plug-in points, special handles, route maps and information to the passengers.

Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has initiated this project that was conceptualised by the state-appointed Mumbai Transformation Support Unit (MTSU) in consultation with Mumbai traffic police and BEST to provide a comfortable journey to middle and senior management executives as well as the general public that prefers a cool commute. The decision was taken at a recent meeting of MTSU, the state-appointed think tank to realise the objective of improving the quality of life in Mumbai and transforming it into a world class metropolis. A press release issued by the chief minister’s office on Friday stated, “The idea is to make public transport more comfortable, citizen friendly and affordable.”

The government plans to approach corporate houses and companies to encourage their employees to use this service in order to reduce the rapid increase in private cars on Mumbai’s roads.

A survey is being conducted to assess the demand so that the routes can be decided. The government has even created a website, www.bestcommute.org, to obtain the opinion of the commuting public. The need to bring in a better class of public bus transport is all the more urgent since crowded suburban trains and the ordinary quality of public bus services has forced many office-goers to use personal cars, thus putting pressure on the limited road space in a linear city.

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