BEST to reorient routes in Mumbai for pandemic travel

A BEST bus travels on the Western Express Highway in Borivli on August 11. Pic/Satej Shinde

The BEST undertaking said on Friday that considering the change in traffic patterns over the past year and a half during the Covid-19 pandemic, it had decided to reorient all its routes to suit the new commute patterns across the city and major changes are expected to come into effect from September 1.

After the local trains opening for the fully vaccinated, the number of daily passengers travelling by BEST buses has stabilised at around 24 lakh. "We have decided to reorient routes and focus more on feeder routes in the city. The buses will be operated mostly from local railway stations to carry passengers," a senior official said.

The second factor is that the BEST is adding buses to its fleet. Recently, it added 24 electric buses and eventually, a total of 1,800 electric buses will be procured by mid-2023."The major operational changes are presently being finalised in consultation with public representatives before making the formal announcement. New destination boards and other related infra like duty routes, charts are also being finalised," an official added.

With full size and double-decker buses being changed over to small-sized buses, the carrying capacity of BEST undertaking has already been reduced by 50 per cent and the reorientation of routes is expected to slowly help BEST increase passenger numbers.