Mumbai: Witnessing an overwhelming number of passengers on Monday, the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking has confirmed that it will add more buses on its fleets in the coming days.
With state government allowing employment sectors across the state to function with 10 per cent, thousands of Mumbaikars hit the road on Monday.
BEST pressed nearly 2,200 buses on Monday, however, considering the nonfunctional suburban railways, the number of buses appeared to be a shortfall as long queues were seen outside bus stops on Monday.
BEST management had earlier specified, each bus will carry only one passenger per two seats on either side of the gangway with a maximum of five standees. A BEST conventional bus can accommodate 50 passengers in seating, thus with the new social distancing guidelines, not more than 30 passengers (25 seating and 5 standees) are expected onboard in a bus.
Meanwhile, in some areas, where buses adhered to the social distancing norms and did not allow more than 30 people to board, long queues were seen at bus stops.
"The frequency of buses is lesser than usual days. Considering BEST is the only travel option available, the management should have pressed more buses to match up the demand," said a passenger.
However, the scenarios were different in some of the routes. In route number 14, where buses ply between Pratiksha Nagar depot and Dr S.P Mukherjee Chowk, passengers boarded the bus like any other day. With all the seats occupied and the gangway filled, social distancing was hardly followed.
"I had boarded a bus till Colaba today. But I didn't feel any difference, seeing the crowd it appeared it's like a regular day with a few people wearing masks," said another regular passenger.
Similar scenario was seen on route number 5, where passengers claimed that there were more than five standees inside the bus.
"Due to the absence of trains, the number of passengers dependent on bus was more, hence it became difficult for the administrations to manage the crowd," said a Kurla based passenger.
Meanwhile, witnessing the overwhelming response, BEST management said it will add more buses to its fleets.
"The response of passengers were huge on Monday and considering the suburban railways are non-operational, BEST will press more buses in its fleet to accommodate more passengers and increase the frequency of the bus," said a senior BEST officer.
BEST spokesperson Manoj Varade has appealed to Mumbaikars to adhere to the social distancing norms and maintain discipline in the crowd.
"We have repeatedly appealed to the citizens to follow safety measures. The disciplinary steps we are asking to follow is for the safety of common people only," Varade told FPJ.
"As an undertaking, we can only request Mumbaikars to abide by the rules and cannot force or penalise anyone. As much as it's our responsibility it's also the passengers' responsibility to adhere to policies," added the spokesperson.
source https://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/more-best-buses-now
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